Epic Games is the latest company making major layoffs, with about 830 employees, or 16% of the company’s employees, affected. Another 250 employees will leave via sales of several Epic-owned companies.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney sent a memo to staff about the job cuts, marking the latest turn in the tech and gaming industries that see a significant number of employees being let go. later confirmed the news that 830 employees were being let go, sharing the internal memo as a press release. Sweeney emphasized that core development was still strong saying that “about two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development”.
For the affected Epic employees, those in the US, Canada, and Brazil will receive six months of severance and healthcare to help cushion the blow. Those with Equity will also receive assistance to vest their stock options as well as career and visa support.
Yoday, Epic Games also announced that it has sold most of kid-friendly advertising solution company SuperAwesome back to its management team and also sold music marketplace Bandcamp just a year after acquiring it. Bandcamp’s buyer is Songtradr, a music licensing platform and marketplace, and the company, in a press release, says that they “ will continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share”.
Just yesterday, Activision Blizzard confirmed a small cut, following a big chop to its esports team over the summer. NCSOFT West also saw job losses in early 2023. Embracer Group is in the process of a major company-wide restructuring that has already led to several studio closures, among them Volition, after a $2 billion deal went south. After this, when reporting financials, the company announced it was going to take a look at its huge, wide-ranging portfolio and changes were incoming. Personnel is something that they continue to expect to reduce.
Those cuts, of course, come after major job cuts at a variety of large tech firms including Amazon, Meta, and X (Twitter).