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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

#331

Post by zem »

mort96 wrote: post #317
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…

> 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. I don't agree. The reason I personally prefer Steam is that all my existing games are on Steam so if I keep buying on Steam I don't have to make and maintain accounts on other stores, if I keep buying my games on Steam I can keep using Steam as my only…

agreed, the epic games store is crappy enough that i will not use it even for free and/or exclusive games. I might have if it was marketed as a clean, unobtrusive experience, but we all know that will never happen.

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

#332

Post by Wowfunhappy »

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…

> They would have been better off building a war chest and pulling a Valve (though I'm sure they'd hate hearing it that way)

Isn't that exactly what they were trying to do with the Epic Game Store?

Steam is the thing that has made Valve successful. They were great as a game company, but as you said, the games don't last. Steam does, and I don't think Valve would be that successful in a business sense without it.

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

#333

Post by johnnyanmac »

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…

>"We've had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic," Sweeney said, adding "market conditions today are the most extreme" since the early days of the company founded in 1991.

Probably the closest way to say "we're in a recession and gaming isn't resistant to this one" I've heard yet. But it makes sense: a "free" service that entices with cosmetics is easy to cut when parent money gets tight.

And if kids lose interest they will move to another game. Or more likely, TikTok and its medium. Just increasing the dopamine.

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

#334

Post by lylejantzi3rd »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #236
jayd16 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A game can be massively popular but many many games fail to hit the mark. Many do not see success and many do not even ship.

Ok, but Fortnite is a massively popular success, even as its popularity slips. Fortnite's run so far could have sustained Epic for years, even without other revenue they get from things like Unreal Engine. Games as a whole may be a risky venture, but we're talking about Epic here; the mystery is not how to succeed in games, but how a company that had an earth-shattering run of success in games is now in such a positi…

Just because it's popular, doesn't mean it's financially successful. Take a look at YouTube. They lost money hand over fist for decades.

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

#335

Post by bogdan »

Reason077 wrote: post #308
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…

> ”Sorry, HOW?!? How can a company like Epic games … be losing money with a product that is so mature?” I’ve been playing Fortnite a bit lately, after my nieces got me into it. One thing is that although the player counts are high (always hundreds of thousands of players online, just in the main Battle Royale game), the average revenue per player can’t be that high. For one thing, once you’ve bought the $10 battle pa…

Hearthstone battle pass isn't really comparable to Fortnite cosmetics. Hearthstone is pay 2 win where the majority of new cards are better than old ones.

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

#336

Post by johnnyanmac »

Ethee wrote: post #130
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…

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…

Network effects disagree, sadly. You don't get market share from the leader by simply "being better". There's way better netowkrs than Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit out there. But some habits are as harder to break than they were to form.

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

#337

Post by johnnyanmac »

uyzstvqs wrote: post #297
yoyohello13 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Steam was first to market and it took forever for competitors to form.

It being a good service is secondary.

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

#338

Post by 9x39 »

tcmart14 wrote: post #274
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…

As much as I love steam, some of this isn't even a high bar. I've always had issues with stuff loading slow or odd behavior on the steam store tab in the application. My understanding is it's because the store tab in the steam application is essentially a web browser, and it sorta works like ass.

It does use Chromium.

Any web browser can seem slow vs a native app, though.

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

#339

Post by IshKebab »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #294
IshKebab wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

That must be why they're so happy to open up iMessage to Android in the US!

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

#340

Post by Narishma »

danpalmer wrote: post #260
pbrum wrote: post #211

Not long ago I was looking at my favorite games of decades past. Unreal Tournament figured very prominently, made of course by Epic. So I wondered: why did they stop making Unreal games? I looked at their game chronology. On one hand, they made Gears of War, an Xbox exclusive that never interested me. And the other one? Oh, right: Fortnite. That's where Unreal Tournament went. They made tons of money for sure. But no…

I wanted to play UT2004 for some nostalgia recently. Turns out even though I own it on the Epic game store, I can't play it because Epic removed it from the Epic game store.

Didn't they make the game free? Or was that just UT99?
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