Epic Games is laying off over 1,000 employees, and cut $500 million in costs. The news was delivered through a statement on the company’s website, signed by CEO and founder Tim Sweeney and prefaced with “this note was sent to Epic employees today.”
The lay offs represent 20 percent of Epic’s staff. “The remaining number of Epic employees is just over 4,000 after today’s layoffs of just over 1,000,” according to a representative for the company.
Epic Games Shut Downs
Fortnite posted an update on X, announcing the shutdown of three of the games newer modes: Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage (Fortnite Festival’s PVP mode), and Ballistic.
“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” the post says.
Rocket Racing will be live until October 2026. Festival Battle Stage and Ballistic will go offline with the 40.20 update on April 16.
It is assumed the employees laid-off will have been working in these departments.
The announcement cites “downturn in Fortnite engagement” as the reason for the layoffs, claiming the decline began in 2025 and has not recovered.
Epic Games also asserts that broad changes in the industry has caused challenges, such as low console sales and slower growth, as well as hurdles “unique to Epic.” All of these issues are cultivated from constant Fortnite updates on PC, console, and mobile platforms.
The company did not say it planned to replace workers with AI. “Since it’s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren’t related to AI. To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can,” the statement says.
The statement also read: “Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”
Fortnite
Recently, Epic made headlines for the increase in the price on Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks. Previously, 1,000 V-Bucks was $8.99, the same dollar amount gets players 800 B-Bucks.
“The cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot and we’re raising prices to help pay the bills,” according to the statement.
The latest season of Fortnite began on March 19, the same day it returned to Google Play.
Other Layoffs
It seems industry layoffs are trending. Crystal Dynamics laid employees off last week.
Battlefield Studios launched one of the most successful games of 2025 and laid off employees.
Ubisoft laid off more than 100 employees at Red Storm Entertainment. Weeks after Highguard was launched, it closed.
Riot Games laid off 80 staff members following the launch of 2XKO, and last month, Sony closed Bluepoint Games.
Sources:
Variety: Epic Games to Lay Off 1.000 Staffers and Cut $500 Million in Costs Amid ‘Fortnite’
Epic Games: Today’s Layoffs
Game Informer: Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 People, Will Shut Down Fortnite Rocket Racing, Ballistic, And Festival Battle Stage
Featured Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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