Over 1,000 Epic Games employees are being laid off today as multiple Fortnite game modes are being shut down for good, CEO Tim Sweeney announced.
In a letter to employees today, Sweeney blamed a "downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025" as reasoning for how the company is "spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded."
As part of some massive structural upheaval at the company, ancillary Fortnite modes Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage are going offline for good over the next few weeks, marking a large reduction of available content.
"Some of the challenges we're facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics; current consoles selling less than last generation's; and games competing for time against other increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment," Sweeney said.
Sweeney said that laid-off employees will receive a severance package with "at least four months of base pay, with more based on tenure," along with an extension of Epic-paid healthcare coverage (six months in the US).
"Market conditions today are the most extreme we've seen since those early days, with massive upheaval in the industry accompanied by massive opportunity for the companies that come out as winners on the other side," he said. "That's what we're aiming to do for our players, and we aim to bring other like-minded developers in the industry along on the journey to build an increasingly open and vibrant future of entertainment together."
Sweeney noted that the layoffs are not AI-related, because "to the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can."
Rocket Racing will disappear in October, while the VALORANT-like Fortnite Ballistic mode and the PvP-centered Fortnite Festival Battle Stage will both be gone as of April 16.
In related news, less than two weeks ago, Epic Games announced it was raising the price on Fortnite's V-Bucks currency. And I can't help but wonder how much $800 million net worth Hollywood actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson charged for his likeness to be used in this season's battle pass.
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