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Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

reuters.com

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Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#111

Post by filoleg »

josephg wrote: post #91
Quarrelsome wrote: post #87

> "We're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded," he said. Sorry, HOW?!? How can a company like Epic games with one of the most successful gaming products of the last few decades be losing money with a product that is so mature? Almost every other games developer would love to be in their position on Fortnite but they've somehow turned that into a loss…

They have ~5000 employees. Most game companies are a tiny fraction of that size. Even most AAA games are made by teams of hundreds. Not teams of thousands.

Epic Games does way more than just purely making games.

They also have their own Steam competitor (Epic Games Store) and, more importantly, they develop and support Unreal Engine used by tons of other game dev companies.

If you want an apples to apples comparison (i.e., other big live-service game companies) in terms of the employee count, you got:

Mihoyo (Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail) - ~5,000-6,000

Riot Games (League of Legends, Valorant) - 4,500

Roblox - 3,500

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#112

Post by influx »

ivraatiems wrote: post #65

I am not Tim Sweeney's biggest fan. I know he and his company have many detractors. Please read this comment with that in mind, because while I don't love them, I also think that as layoff announcements go, this is good. No beating around the bush, explicitly NOT blaming AI, taking responsibility, taking care of those impacted. If you are gonna do it, this is as good as it can get. I think the reality is that Epic go…

Aren't they trying to do a Valve with their store?

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#113

Post by indubioprorubik »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #106
yifanl wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because games is simply not a particularly profitable industry. There's a reason why Valve moved on from making games to being a digital landlord.

Right now even Valve realizes that Steam will literally run out of steam. This is why they have been trying to become more like Nintendo and selling their own hardware (with varying success) .

Valve wants a boat that is independent of microsoft. Not to go down with that Tit.A.I.nic seems like a smart move.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#114

Post by duped »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #87

> "We're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded," he said. Sorry, HOW?!? How can a company like Epic games with one of the most successful gaming products of the last few decades be losing money with a product that is so mature? Almost every other games developer would love to be in their position on Fortnite but they've somehow turned that into a loss…

Fortnite is almost 10 years old, I'd be interested to see the average age of the playerbase. People have less time for games when they get older.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#115

Post by irishcoffee »

Anvoker wrote: post #79

Often when I see layoffs like this, I can't help but think "Wow that company has so many employees and yet, in practice, does so little". This perhaps a rather uncharitable sentiment, but I can't help but have it. Yes, Unreal Engine keeps getting improved, more Fortnite content gets produced. But there is a general lack of innovation, one that I find personally painful when I look at Epic's recent-ish track record. N…

> "Wow that company has so many employees and yet, in practice, does so little"

Twitter. I despise musk, ftr.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#116

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

b3lvedere wrote: post #19
pram wrote: post #6

I’ve wondered how much money was burned on Tim Sweeneys quixotic quest to re-create the Steam store. I know a lot of people who would religiously download the “free games” but never spent a cent.

The Epic Games store/browser is awful. I have bought one (insanely discounted) game on it and get all the free games, because i like to collect videogames. But i almost never play them, because the application is super slow. Steam has absolutely the best application, then (with a huge enormous gap) comes Gog, Amazon, Xbox, EA, Ubisoft and Epic at the rock bottom. I don't use Blizzards program, so i can't judge on tha…

This reminds me that one of the first blog posts I ever wrote was about how incredibly bad/shitty Epic games is

epic games doesn't know how to implement oauth (rant) : https://smileplease.mataroa.blog/blog/epic-games-doesnt-know...

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#117

Post by applfanboysbgon »

yifanl wrote: post #108
sph wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed.

Look at NVidia's stock price during the period when they announced a pivot away from gaming.

Nvidia doesn't make games, this is one of the worst takes I've ever seen on this site.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#118

Post by LiamhCryptokeys »

The Valve comparison is apt. The difference is Valve built Steam as infrastructure first, then quietly stepped back from games. Epic did it backwards — they built the game first, then tried to force the infrastructure (EGS) into existence with money. Much harder to do it that way.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#119

Post by darkteflon »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #106
yifanl wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because games is simply not a particularly profitable industry. There's a reason why Valve moved on from making games to being a digital landlord.

Right now even Valve realizes that Steam will literally run out of steam. This is why they have been trying to become more like Nintendo and selling their own hardware (with varying success) .

Hmm, citation needed on that one imo. Consensus is that their hardware strategy is in service of selling more games. Hardware revenues for Steam Deck are proportionally tiny; Frame and Machine aren’t going to meaningfully change that.

Re: Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls

#120

Post by duped »

yifanl wrote: post #92
Quarrelsome wrote: post #87

> "We're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded," he said. Sorry, HOW?!? How can a company like Epic games with one of the most successful gaming products of the last few decades be losing money with a product that is so mature? Almost every other games developer would love to be in their position on Fortnite but they've somehow turned that into a loss…

Because games is simply not a particularly profitable industry. There's a reason why Valve moved on from making games to being a digital landlord.

It's the leading entertainment industry, beating tv/film/music. If you can't find profit there then you're not doing your job.
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