Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls • Hacker News Board

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

#431

Post by linehedonist » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:01 AM UTC

abcde666777 wrote: post #415

bad_haircut72 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not entitled to a job, neither is anyone in the capital class entitled to own shit, they own the best houses, all the means of production - they're not entitled to any of that either.

You think they didn't have to apply themselves to be able to acquire those things? They just got it handed to them for free?

Of course they did. It’s called inheritance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ellison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton_family https://www.forbes.com/profile/haas/

And the list goes on.

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

#432

Post by johnnyanmac » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

tracerbulletx wrote: post #377

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…

Why the good god do so many people care if business is effcient. If businesses were maximally efficient we'd all be starving to death or working at red line hanging on by a thread with no slack at a job to avoid staving to death, while like 5000 people live like gods.

There's two lines of thought.

1. More efficiencies makes for more quality products, and opens up opportunities for more initiatives which will also be higher quality than usual.

2. More efficiencies means companies become super leannin order to minimize labor and maximize costs, focusing on a few select profit centers.

I guess you fall under #2. Both are correct, depending on the economy. So you're rightm for now. #1 was the trend last decade despite horrible inefficiencies.

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

#433

Post by bentcorner » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:04 AM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #344

vablings wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15 years is not some insane gap that you can't get around. The biggest issue is that the EGS is just an inferior experience compared to steam, that's simply it. If Epic games really wanted to start eating away at steams market share, they would do one thing. Make EGS not shitty for the user

15 years is a humongous gap. Almost an entire generation. Do you expect to make a Facebook killer in 2022? A WOW killer in 2017? Make a DOTA killer right now? There's so many people who aren't even your market, they are an "one game player". You can't target that realistically unless that one game shits the bed.

Tik Tok is arguably a Facebook killer.

Roblox is in some ways there, I think Epic thought fortnite could have competed. IMO they made a strategic mistake in shackling their game-as-a-platform to Fortnite. I thought the music fortnite thing looked interesting, but I have negative interest in installing Fortnite.

Call it something else and make it literally the first thing you see on epicgames.com, have it work on mobile, and maybe things would be different today.

(Aside: Roblox wins because I can go from typing in roblox.com into my browser and be playing a game with a friend in under 20s)

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

#434

Post by DANmode » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:13 AM UTC

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…

Not with that attitude!

Demanding it is how Steam came about!

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

#435

Post by Sleaker » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC

ChoGGi wrote: post #379

jrozner wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People hated steam when it launched but you needed it to play CS 1.6. It made installing mods easier. Then HL2 released, orange box, and they were able to get a critical mass as they provided platforms support for other games. Steam got better. It’s still not great but they have so much market share that basically any PC gamer already has it. Epic wants some of that money. The problem is nobody wants to install anoth…

> People hated steam when it launched but you needed it to play CS 1.6. I thought CSS was the first release on steam beta? I remember playing the crap out of it, then the actual steam release happened, and it somehow turned into a laggy buggy hunk of crap for months.

Steam dropped basically alongside team fortress.

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

#436

Post by codebje » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:16 AM UTC

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…

You don't need to move stores, though, do you? Want to play a Steam exclusive? Fine, launch Steam. Want to play an Epic exclusive? Fine, launch Epic.

What you do need is to avoid tying your game socialisation to a _store_. Some day, Steam will be enshittified too.

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

#437

Post by ikiris » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:19 AM UTC

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…

The main feature they don't want to add is making it easy to tell when games are crap by user reviews

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

#438

Post by llyama » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:23 AM UTC

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…

A big reason it feels like nobody competes with steam is that if you want to sell your game on steam it can't be cheaper elsewhere. So any other store can't compete on price.

If you don't sell your game on steam you are missing 90% of the market. So as long as Valve continue to make steam good enough, nobody has an incentive to switch.

It's an abusive monopoly. Steam take 30% of revenue from developers and Epic take 12%, but the prices can't be 18% cheaper for the consumer without giving up 90% of the market!

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

#439

Post by lmm » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:31 AM UTC

hamdingers wrote: post #243

bergheim wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody says this. It's so weird. How on earth will epic win without exclusives? It's like launching some Facebook competitor "but you get two profile pictures". Noone would switch. All these geeks singing steam and lamenting competition. Competition bad for me mkay, steam good. /me shakes head

How do they win with exclusives? The strategy is nonsense. For Sony, I get it. I want to play Demon Souls, I buy a PS5, now I own a PS5 I'm gonna buy more games for it. But for EGS this doesn't make sense. It costs me nothing to install both stores on my PC. I buy Alan Wake 2 on EGS, great, that doesn't make me any more likely to buy the next game I want there. Nothing about the platform is sticky or requires a sunk…

> It costs me nothing to install both stores on my PC.

But you wouldn't bother unless you have a reason to. I put off buying games I wanted to for months because I'd've had to install a new store. No-one is going to install a store for nothing.

> I buy Alan Wake 2 on EGS, great, that doesn't make me any more likely to buy the next game I want there.

Now every time you launch Alan Wake 2 they get a chance to sell you another game. If you see a game you like, why wouldn't you buy it on EGS now that you've installed it and know it works? They've got your email address now and can send you recommendations or tell you when there's a sale on.

Sure, it's still going to be an uphill struggle. But if they can't get you to install the store then they can't even start.

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

#440

Post by hparadiz » Wed, Mar 25, 2026, 1:36 AM UTC

keyringlight wrote: post #262

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…

I can't help thinking the battle was lost before it even started, no matter how good the offering was because the PC and mobile platforms (where epic operate their store) have 99.9% already decided who owns them. The way I see it Epic wanted to copy what Counter-strike and HL2 was to Steam, but using Fortnite to push their store for a fresh generation of gamers. The problem is they couldn't replace or exist alongside…

Epic games goes out of their way to be hostile to Linux users. I'm at the point where I just ignore windows only games. And I'm the exact type of person they'd want to convert cause I tell all my friends about my gaming experiences. They could even take proton and use it in their store.