Despite annual revenue in the region of $ 6 billion from Epic Games Store, Fortnite, and Unreal Engine, the company has just laid off a further 1,000 employees. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, cited a downturn in Fortnite engagement since the beginning of 2025, with that particular blockbuster being a cash cow for the company. Earlier this month, the company increased the prices of in-game currency known as V-Bucks, provoking a backlash from Fortnite players. I’ve never played the game and never will, despite it being ‘free to play’, because not only do I not do multiplayer, but buying loot boxes, in-game currency, and the like is a mug’s game in my opinion. Just ask the parents!
Fortnite Is A Gold Mine!
Apparently, Fortnite has generated an astonishing $42 billion in the years from 2018 to 2026 and continues to pull in billions every year through microtransactions from its over 130 million players. However, the company says there’s been a downturn in Fortnite engagement, hence the layoffs. One wonders if perhaps parents have finally decided that enough is enough and cut their credit cards in half, or players have finally twigged that they’re getting ripped off?
But what sticks out for me is the fact that this is yet another example of corporate greed where companies make billions – Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023, for example – and lay off valuable staff and ruin families. In fact, Epic Games even laid off an employee with terminal brain cancer who subsequently lost his medical insurance, but it’s understood that steps are being taken to rectify that particular situation. Yet the statement from Tim Sweeney says that the company is spending more than it’s making, which I find inexplicable.
The Pandemic Effect
Many game developers overestimated the rise of gaming when we were all illegally locked up during the pandemic, but it swiftly came back to bite them in the rear, and they are now paying the price. And I always thought that being a football/soccer coach was the most tenuous job in the world, but it seems that taking a job in game development is now even riskier. I have every sympathy for those talented folks who have been laid off because they probably thought, quite rightly, that if the company is making so much money hand over fist, their jobs were safe for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed today, and it’s estimated that around 45,000 people have lost their jobs in gaming development over the last three years, and it hasn’t stopped yet.
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