Epic Games Lays is cutting 16% of its workforce, affecting 900 people, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The creator of the popular online game Fortnite, with over 400 million users, and the Unreal Engine, a popular game development tool, made the announcement in a memo to staff. TechCrunch requested comment from Epic Games, but did not receive an immediate response.
Epic Games announced today that Fortnite V-Bucks will increase in price in the United States and several other countries on October 27. In a blog post, the company explained that inflation and currency fluctuations have caused the price of each bundle to rise by 12% to 15%.
Epic Games filed a cert petition with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, potentially allowing the highest court in the land to examine if Apple’s software business violates federal antitrust laws. This could reopen a long-running legal battle between the two companies that has traversed the courts for nearly five years now. This story is still developing….
The video game industry has endured a challenging few months. Following a series of high-profile acquisitions, such as the purchase of The Lord of the Rings IP rights, Embracer Group has canceled multiple projects, closed an entire studio, and might consider selling off another studio after a $2 billion investment deal fell apart. Activision Blizzard has recently laid off employees in its Hearthstone division, having previously laid off employees in its esports department earlier this year.
BioWare has also undergone layoffs, which included long-serving employees recognized for their contributions to foundational games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Furthermore, Sega made an announcement earlier today stating that it had canceled the live-service shooter Hyenas before the game’s launch and anticipated layoffs at the game’s developer, Creative Assembly.
Now, as we anticipate Epic’s forthcoming layoffs affecting a substantial number of individuals, it appears that the video game job market is about to become more competitive than ever.
