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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

#221

Post by fcsp »

glenstein wrote: post #174
Ethee wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still funny to me that they would rather burn 9 figures in cash on these silly deals to try and 'trap' gamers on their platform instead of just... I don't know... making a better platform? The reason nobody competes with Steam is simply the sheer number of integration and platform features that make it easy to buy, play and share games with my friends. It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your pl…

One of the more fascinating parts of the Xbox plan of attack for its new console is its apparent marriage of Xbox, Steam, and Epic among possibly others in a unified console experience. Having a true console like experience with a variety of PC game stores plugged in I think is a rare lane available for Xbox to try and do something other than reproduce Steam but worse, and I'm curious how it's going to go.

This being microsoft, my expectation UX wise is that similar to those Xbox ROG devices you'll have to drop to the windows desktop to install updates, and they'll probably also throw in some copilot to help you through the process. I don't think they have it in them to innovate here and make it pleasant in any meaningful way

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

#222

Post by dgeiser13 »

zaptrem wrote: post #194
applfanboysbgon wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't losing money on Fortnite, they're losing money on vanity projects like the Epic Game Store where they spend tens of millions of dollars for exclusivity deals with developers, and give away free games to try to poach Steam users with an otherwise inferior product. Unfortunately it is their employees that are paying the price of leadership making it rain with their overflowing coffers they couldn't help but…

In my experience, the Epic Games Store downloads faster, installs more efficiently, and launches games faster than Steam. The social features I actually use (i.e., add a friend, join them in a game) work fine. I'm not aware of any features Steam has that EGS lacks that I actually use frequently (Valve's VR, streaming tech, and Proton are great, but I don't use those frequently). It's not just me, many indie game deve…

If this were true than Epic would have eaten Steam's lunch.

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

#223

Post by lacy_tinpot »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #160
Ethee wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still funny to me that they would rather burn 9 figures in cash on these silly deals to try and 'trap' gamers on their platform instead of just... I don't know... making a better platform? The reason nobody competes with Steam is simply the sheer number of integration and platform features that make it easy to buy, play and share games with my friends. It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your pl…

> Just make it a nice experience. Haven’t you been paying attention? That’s not how we do things in business anymore…

It's truly incredible how difficult business people make doing business.

Doing business is very simple, easy, and straightforward, but I suspect in a lot of cases the individual behavioral aspects of the executives get in the way of doing good business.

Direction and leadership is something that these companies never seem to get right.

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

#224

Post by raincole »

pjmlp wrote: post #161
michens wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely is a profitable industry, maybe not as profitable as todays greedy shareholders would like it to be. Just look at the CD Projekt that releases 1 game per 10 years and still makes a fortune through Netflix colabs and selling merch.

It is full of street performers, some manage to strike a deal with a label, and tour the world once. Afterwards depends on how they manage to keep surfing the success wave. Basically.

Fortnite is exactly the guy who tour the world once and twice and thrice.

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

#225

Post by HerbManic »

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…

Pool the money then make the dream game. Announce Unreal Engine 6 with Jazz the Jackrabbit 3!

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

#226

Post by debugnik »

tombert wrote: post #124
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some grievances with minecraft recently Someone is suing mojang because they break EU/Swedish law (It was a youtube video worth watching) Minecraft bedrock is having some incredibly shitty tactics to move people towards their marketplace while community calling it bugrock I don't think that many people who play Minecraft really appreciate Mojang being bought by Microsoft. Many are oblivious to the fact sure…

I don't own a Windows computer so I only play the Java Edition, which still shockingly gets regularly updates and is very mod-friendly even still. When MS bought Minecraft I assumed that they were going to drop support for the Java version but I was clearly wrong about that. Didn't know about the lawsuit though, I will give that a look.

> which still shockingly gets regularly updates

AFAIK Java Edition is still the actual development branch. Mojang develops new updates for Java Edition first, then lets another team port them to Bedrock.

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

#227

Post by jayd16 »

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…

It might be a case where they're projecting costs and a pessimistic Fortnite market a few years out. I doubt this something you do after the money is gone. You'd look ahead and see your runway in a down market is way too short and cut costs.

You can't just bet the farm on dropping a new $5B/year game.

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

#228

Post by kergonath »

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…

> I don't use Blizzards program, so i can't judge on that one.

It’s… fine. Unnecessary, if you ask me, but ok. OTOH, it is on a completely different scale compared to Steam and GOG. I am sure it would be a disaster otherwise, it really is not designed for that.

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

#229

Post by rockyj »

ryandrake wrote: post #144
shimman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's enough, the problem is greed. They must perform ritual sacrifices to appease the market gods.

To corporations, "enough" is not even a word. Line must go up and to the right, forever. There is not even the concept of "enough."

Line goes up is also not enough anymore. The slope of line going up is most important. You made 10bn last year, but only 9 bn this year - this means time for some layoffs to please "the market". I have no way to explain this world we live in.

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

#230

Post by zaptrem »

4corners4sides wrote: post #26

Roblox is the elephant in the room here which fills the niche for freemium, fun 3D experiences that run on basically any platform or device.

Many of the games that actual kids spend time on are the purest expression of gaming slop (half-broken microtransaction gambling hell with schizophrenic flashing colors). Roblox and Fortnite's Islands system are both guilty of this. The problem is kids don't know any better and don't yet understand the value of money. The obvious response is "parents should handle this" and while I agree, there is no system to let them say "here are Robux/V-Bucks you can spend on quality content (e.g., Fortnite's Battle Pass is very well designed, quality content), but gambling slop is disabled".
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