Devs lash out at Epic Games execs after mass layoffs: \u201cYou should be laid off too\u201d Epic Games Inc.The Epic Games layoffs are the last straw for developers who are making their feelings about the industry known. Many have taken to Twitter to decry the \u201ccorporate greed\u201d that they feel runs rampant in game development. On September 29, 2023, Fortnite developer Epic Games announced via an internal memo that it would be laying off 16% of its entire workforce. Approximately 830 employees have lost their jobs according to initial reports from Bloomberg. In the memo, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny cited a financial misreading of Fortnite\u2019s Creative 2.0 content which he called \u201clower margin business\u201d than the game\u2019s other revenue streams. Ultimately Sweeny said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been spending way more money than we earn\u201d. The news shocked the games development industry despite a wave of layoffs from EA, Unity, Firaxis, Take-Two, CD Projekt RED, Riot, and FaZe in 2023 alone. Video game creatives have had enough and have been venting their frustration at the precarious state of the industry. Game developers sound off on Epic Games layoffs Level Designer for Crystal Dynamics Kolby Payne lamented that a massively profitable field could be so volatile. \u201cIt\u2019s f**king sad that there is zero job security in our industry that brings in about $180 billion a year,\u201d Payne Tweeted. \u201cThis is what makes me genuinely despair about working in games. Nothing will ever be enough,\u201d WB Games Montreal\u2019s Mitch Dyer replied. \u201cNo amount of exploitative design, hostile microtransaction economies, or live service success will ever guarantee you can keep the job that created the wealth.\u201d The comments of these posts were filled with calls for \u201ccategory-wide\u201d unionization across the games development industry. These were met with frequent references to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Many developers and their followers are baffled at the stark contrast of 2023 in video games. In a year that saw the release of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3, Starfield, Tears of the Kingdom, Octopath Traveler 2, and more, there have been more layoffs than any other year in the history of the industry. Many other industry figures have reached out in solidarity with the employees who have been laid off at Epic Games. A number of people have been Tweeting job availabilities and hirers have been asking those affected to contact them. In an official statement within the initial memo, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny said that there would be no further layoffs at the company. \u201cThese changes financially stabilize the business,\u201d he confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Devs lash out at Epic Games execs after mass layoffs: \u201cYou should be laid off too\u201d Epic Games Inc.The Epic Games layoffs are the last straw for developers who are making their feelings about the industry known. Many have taken to Twitter to decry the \u201ccorporate greed\u201d that they feel runs rampant in game development. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}