CARY, N.C. (WNCN) — Epic Games, publisher of the popular video game Fortnite, announced Thursday afternoon that it is laying off 16% of its employees, CEO Tim Sweeney said in a news release.
“For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators,”
Sweeney said. “I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect, I see that this was unrealistic.”
Epic Games is headquartered in Cary, but has about 40 offices worldwide.
According to the press release, around 830 employees will be laid off from the company.
Sweeney said that there won’t be any more layoffs, and will continue hiring for “critical roles.”
“We’re cutting costs without breaking development or our core lines of businesses so we can continue to focus on our ambitious plans,” Sweeney said. “About two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development. Some of our products and initiatives will land on schedule, and some may not ship when planned because they are under-resourced for the time being. We’re ok with the schedule tradeoff if it means holding on to our ability to achieve our goals, get to the other side of profitability and become a leading metaverse company.”
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