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

reuters.com

291–300 of 584 posts

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

#291
post #239

> "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…

> "We're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded," he said. The chances this is accurate are extremely small. This is either anticipating AI coding goals, the CFO proved they were overloaded on developers, or they're just cutting to hit quarterly numbers.

I'd be sad if "quarterly numbers" is a reason for a privately held company with 40% controlling stake still held by Sweeney to lay off 1K folks.

As an indie dev, I generally like the guy's stance on shifting the PC gaming industry's support and financial incentive structures, so I'd be a bit surprised if he just did mass layoffs like Embracer and co.

That said, the article implies things that aren't necessarily canon: "cut jobs as Fortnite engagement falls" doesn't mean "cutting people because Fortnite is flagging". It's much more likely because the Epic Game Store struggles to push enough volume to recover the cost of developer acquisition on the platform.

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

#292
post #281
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that Proton puts them in a win win position. If Windows stays popular, they're fine. If Windows tanks, they're fine.

If Windows tanks their fountain runs dry.

What is the scenario where windows becomes so unpopular, computer games stop being made entirely instead of another OS filling that gap?

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

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

or network effects are keeping people on a worse platform?

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Gamers' vehement defense of what is effectively a monopoly continues to confuse me. It is a monopoly but that can be a good thing sometimes. Steam is really good! Is it 30% cut good? Maybe not but I do think Valve has managed to keep Steam good for a very long time and if they lose their monopoly they're going to have a strong incentive to fuck things up. Another example is WhatsApp. Sure, sucks for Google and Appl…

Why would Apple care if WhatsApp has a monopoly? They don’t make money from iMessage

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

#296
post #89
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were unions involved in Epic's layoff?

I think they're arguing that it should not be up to the companies being nice. Yeah, Epic's layoffs were nice, but a lot of companies give shit or no severance at all. I've been laid off and I only get paid until the end of the week, and for healthcare the only thing I have access to is overpriced COBRA.

Is COBRA your only option? Have you checked your state's insurance marketplace?

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

#297
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…

Steam does. That's why they're the undefeated king.

This applies to everything. If you see a product category where users are legitimately unhappy; then enter it, build something actually good, you'll be the biggest and richest in no-time.

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

#298
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not that hard, stop trying to 'force' me to use your platform. Just make it a nice experience. I feel like this is good advice, and should still be a pillar of building a business: prioritize customer satisfaction, and your happy customers will become repeat customers. But I don't think it's enough. Epic tried to launch a store in 2018, 15 years after the launch of Steam. That's 15 years of customers buying th…

Why did they need to make a store? Seems like there was no need for it...

Why does anyone need to make a store? Walmart and Target both exist. Generally, consumer choice and industry competition are considered good things that drive innovation and the nicer experiences we're talking about.

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

#299
post #156

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…

You see this trap in tech companies as well as game studios. I call it "acting like Google before you're Google". And in fact virtually nobody becomes Google. Google has been a money printing machine for 20+ years almost unparalleled in human history. That's allowed Google to write bespoke software for everything , which has been useful because almost nobody has Google's problems. It's also allowed Google to contribu…

> Then you see the likes of Twitter a decade or more ago who dedicated possibly hundreds of engineers to make Cassandra work. That's doing Google shit. But they aren't Google. And eventually those chickens come home to roost.

Isn't it the other way around? Using off-the-shelf solutions like Cassandra didn't work, so they had to resort to doing actual Google shit, a custom solution, to meet their needs.

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

#300
post #114

> "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.

My 11 year old son plays Fortnite almost daily. He plays other games too but Fortnite is what he plays with his friends online.
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