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Epic Games, the company behind the live-service behemoth Fortnite<\/em> and the makers of the ubiquitous game-design software Unreal Engine 5, announced plans to lay off more than 1,000 employees on March 24 in response to “industry-wide challenges” and a “downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025.” The news came via a blog post on Epic’s official website and was first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the post, CEO Tim Sweeney trots out the usual phrases we’ve all become far too familiar with over the past several years: “Some of the challenges we’re facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics; current consoles selling less than last generation’s; and games competing for time against other increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment.”<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the post, Sweeney gets a bit more specific, alluding to rough times for its marquee game. “The downturn in Fortnite<\/em> engagement that started in 2025 means we’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded.” (According to Statista, Epic generated $6.01 billion in revenue in 2025.)<\/p>\n The post also makes oblique reference to Epic’s ongoing legal battle against Apple, which has essentially centered around Epic’s fight to get Fortnite<\/em> back on the App Store without having to pay Apple a percentage of sales. “Despite Fortnite<\/em> remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we\u2019ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite<\/em> magic with every season; we’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite<\/em> 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.”<\/p>\n The move comes on the heels of Epic raising the prices for Fortnite<\/em>‘s in-game currency, known as V-bucks, back on March 10. Those price changes went into effect on March 19. In a blog post announcing those changes, Epic said, “The cost of running Fortnite<\/em> has gone up a lot, and we\u2019re raising prices to help pay the bills.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n