Fortnite staff shocked by 1,000 layoffs amid game's uncertain future

Fortnite staff who survived yesterday's mass culling of workers say they're reeling, struggling to comprehend the impact on the game's future this year and beyond.

Epic games announces 1,000 job cuts, blaming fortnite's downturn

In a statement, Epic boss Tim Sweeney blamed the layoffs on the company 'spending significantly more than we're making' amid a downturn in interest in Fortnite — despite it remaining one of the world's most popular games.

Senior and long-serving employees, including design director Christopher Pope, principle engineer Evan Kinney, lead writer Nik Blahunka, and character art director Vitaliy Naymushin, were among those impacted. So too was Devin Connors, the community manager at Rocket League studio Psyonix.

Fortnite gameplay producer Robby Williams reflected on the losses via social media, describing yesterday as 'a brutal day at Epic'. He warned that the departures will be 'very hard and painful' not just for those now jobless, but also for the company's remaining staff who must now pick up the pieces and 'try to keep moving forward'. Williams expressed uncertainty over the full impact on Fortnite's future, stating 'we cannot even fully understand what kind of impacts this will have on the game for the rest of the year and likely beyond.'

The layoffs come just a week after the launch of Fortnite's long-awaited Chapter 7 Season 2, which had seen a fresh high point in the game's story and gameplay following a lengthy wait for new content. However, it was clear that Epic was not pleased with the financial performance of the game in recent months, prompting the company to raise the price of its lucrative V-Bucks in-game currency, sparking a huge backlash from players.

Epic's Sweeney has vowed to 'build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events' as the company accelerates its developer tools and evolves from Unreal Engine 5 to Unreal Engine 6. He hinted at 'huge launch plans' toward the end of the year, and will hold a town hall meeting with staff on Thursday to discuss next steps.