It’s another sad day for game company news. According to Bloomberg, a whole heap of Epic Games layoffs occurred this morning and resulted in roughly 16%, or 870 employees, being let go. Epic Games is most well-known these days for their massive free-to-play battle royale Fortnite.

Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney reportedly had this to say in a note to employees:

For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see this was unrealistic.

Sweeney also reportedly cited a change in the company’s economics as the main reason for these layoffs. Apparently, due to Fortnite’s new Creator program, which gives players the ability to create and sell content in-game, Epic’s revenue structure has changed a little, leading to a need to cut down on non-core development positions.

Epic Games will also reportedly lose another 250 employees once the company sells Bandcamp, the well-known music site, and spins off SuperAwesome, a marketing company owned by Epic.

We hate to see stories like this. Ascendant Studios just lost half of its staff following the release of Immortals of Aveum, and right after that, Embracer cut down on Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics. It’s been a rough season for the game dev world.

We’ll be sure to update this story once Epic Games provides an official statement on the layoffs. In the meantime, stay tuned in to MP1st for any further updates.

Source: Bloomberg