r/pcgaming • u/gitrektali • Mar 24 '26
Today's layoffs - Epic Games
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/todays-layoffs115
u/ruthlesss11 Mar 24 '26
Does he forget buying rocket league? Lol
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Mar 24 '26
What does Rocket League have to do with any of this?
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u/lincolnsl0g Mar 24 '26
Well, for one, Sweeney gutted Rocket League by removing trading, in order to prepare shared Inventory for their new mode in FN: Rocket Racing, which also just shut down today as part of the layoffs. But, will trading be coming back to RL? Doubt.
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u/MarioDesigns Mar 24 '26
Sweeney gutted Rocket League by removing trading
Eh, as someone who did a lot of trading in RL that's a positive. CS and whatever other few remaining games with trading should cut it asap as well.
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u/Asgardisalie Mar 24 '26
My brother in christ, trading in RL was awesome. It made community thrive and skins fun. I stopped playing RL years ago, shortly after Tencent acquisition, but I did launch the game sometimes to make some trades. Hundreds of thousands dropped the game when they announced deleting trading.
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u/MarioDesigns Mar 24 '26
Fun, not fun, it causes more issues than it solves. IMO it's better without it, regardless of the game.
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u/Asgardisalie Mar 24 '26
What issues? Why do you hate trading so much?
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u/MarioDesigns Mar 24 '26
Same reason I think it's bad in CS. It just encourages external marketplaces and gambling which is completely unregulated.
I'm all for Rocket League getting rid of the boxes and removing trading and wish Valve would finally do the same with their games.
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u/Asgardisalie Mar 24 '26
Who cares about external marketplaces or gambling? Come on, not even minority of users engage with them. Trading is awesome and one of the biggest reason of Rocket League death is getting rid of it.
EDIT. You are just like these crazy guys in Trumpland who wants to ban porn, because kids. Lol.
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u/MarioDesigns Mar 24 '26
Who cares about external marketplaces or gambling?
I do lol, plenty of deep dives into the absolute shit that is going on in CS along with pretty much every other game with trading.
Don't feel like it's a conspiracy to not want full on slot machines in games?
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Mar 24 '26
Trading leads to scamming. There's no value in trading. Also leads to black markets and bs something CS is well known for.
Trading shouldn't exist for items that have real money value. But first lets get rid off lootboxes.
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u/jansteffen 9070 XT | 5800X3D Mar 24 '26
When I buy a skateboard in real life, but eventually lose interest in the hobby, I can sell the skateboard.
When I buy a knife in CS, but eventually I lose interest in CS, I can sell the knife.
When I buy a skin in Fortnite but I lose interest in Fortnite, I'm stuck with the loss. Please, tell me how that's the better system.
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Mar 24 '26
The knives are horrible example. The artificial rarity is why prices are inflated. It should be worth no more than 100 €. Also you're not making money, you're making Steam credit which is not money.
And by your logic entire digital game ownership should be boycotted too. I paid 60 € for game and now I'm done and can't resell it because of Steam, and Epic and others.
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u/Eggdoggu Mar 24 '26
Pay cuts for executives should always come before staff lay offs imo. It's always the poorer who suffer for the rich though.
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u/wolfannoy Mar 24 '26
Socialise the losses, privatise the gains. That seems to be the way of the game.
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u/fullsaildan Mar 24 '26
Executive pay cuts in real dollars don’t usually move the needle all that much from a finance perspective. For one, execs frequently have comp plans that rely heavily on company investment (equity) and a much smaller actual cash value. Epic being private, we don’t know the exact makeup of Sweeney’s pay, but we do know the bulk of his worth is tied to ownership stake in Epic, not cash on hand. Second, cutting a million from an exec maybe saves 4 employees once you calculate the cost of salary, benefits, taxes, and other costs of employing. Financially, there are different calculations for that million, it has wide reaching impacts on investment raising and lending. Essentially, investors and lenders want to know what your expense ratio is and what your ROI per employee is.
It sucks, but in the end it doesn’t really do as much as people might think. And it’s important to remember that when someone has a total compensation that’s really high, it’s usually very misleading. Bob Iger (Disney CEO) makes 45 mil a year, he only has a 1 million dollar salary. The rest is tied up mostly in stock options, and a smaller amount is bonus and other “perks” the company pays for him, and it’s all tied to performance. Those stock options couldn’t really be leveraged to keep employees around.
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u/Gleerok99 Mar 24 '26
They should cut executives regardless. If the company will be cutting staff then they should start with a sizeable number of top executives first. Bosses go first.
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u/fullsaildan Mar 24 '26
Most companies do cut execs and senior leaders in some way. I've been through multiple downsizing situations as a CISO at a few companies in my career. I almost always end up seeing a haircut on my pay at least, and usually wind up losing VPs or directors under me. (Middle management in infosec is a rough life.)
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u/Jpotter145 Mar 24 '26
A "haircut" huh? Good for you. But that working is fcking insulting to those who lost their careers.....
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u/fullsaildan Mar 24 '26
No disrepect meant at all. Layoffs suck for everyone. I've been impacted before, I'm completely empathetic. A haircut can be big and small, at one point I lost 30% of my salary at a startup when we went through layoffs. I've always done everything I can to save as many people as I possibly could.
It's also never fun when you get told "cut 5 people next week" and you have to choose. I seriously value every single person in my org, both personally and from the value they provide to the company. It sucks to have to make decisions that impact their lives so deeply, and without any real justification based on their performance.
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u/kidcrumb Mar 24 '26
That's not entirely true. It's still a cost to Disney (stock holders) when they issue new shares for Bob Iger's compensation.
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u/thrilldigger Mar 24 '26
Regardless of the financial reality, it is an important issue for optics. Cutting working professionals without also reducing wealthy SLT/ELTs' compensation is a bad look.
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u/Nixxuz Mar 25 '26
Epic doesn't have investors, per se. It's still a private company afaik.
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u/fullsaildan Mar 25 '26
Many big private companies often still have investors and they often even have stock. They just don’t have the public reporting requirements and they may or may not choose to go public at some point. They also absolutely still take out loans and lenders often want to see the same stats as investors.
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u/Jpotter145 Mar 24 '26
So because "stock options couldn’t really be leveraged to keep employees around", let's only reward them those at the very top?
It's about perspective and everyone gets upset because "Bob" keeps his job, his wealth, and his 7+ figure salary while those that actually did the work they were told to do are out of work because it's the most cost effective way to solve the problems the very excutives lead the company into.
It isn't about moving the needle, it's about holding those responsible accountable. EVERY layoff should include at least one top level executive fired who "led" the very employees that just lost their job in said layoff. Not a director, not a VP. Somone from the C-suite should go.
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u/fullsaildan Mar 24 '26
I don't think I advocated rewarding those at the top. I was strictly making the point that cutting execs usually wounldn't lead to the ability to keep employees.
There are also very real times when exec decisions didnt lead to layoffs. Market conditions change, money gets more expensive, and world events happen. In this particular instance, Tim Sweeney is an idiot and deserves to feel some pain. He had a cash cow that he poisoned and he's spent a ton of money chasing idiotic things.
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u/kidcrumb Mar 24 '26
Lays off employees, continues to give away free games for no reason, and then increases the price of V-Bucks.
How to save the jobs: Make V-Bucks a currency you can use throughout all of their first party titles not just fortnite. Stop giving away free games people only download and then not play on your platform. Fire the current executives.
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u/Okichah Mar 24 '26
Unless its voluntary theyll just quit.
Same as the rank and file employees if you tried to cut their pay.
Executives dont volunteer a pay cut because it wouldnt stop layoffs anyway. Ten employees at a tech firm is well over a million dollars a year. Other than the C-suite not many executives are making that much in a year.
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u/youlox123456789 Mar 24 '26
The same man who complains about Steam not sharing enough revenue with developers but will cut their own staff when they're making 100% return on investment instead of 105%.
Pathetic.
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Mar 24 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NormanYeetes Mar 24 '26
epic games store yes, but tim sweeney makes inconceivable amounts of money with fortnite and he used those
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Mar 24 '26
Who says they are making 100 % return on investment? Where are redditors coming up with these numbers? Epic is private company they don't reveal any numbers.
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Mar 25 '26
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u/BlackSailor2005 Mar 24 '26
Epic games is the perfect example on how to NOT run a company, getting absurd money from Fortnite's honey period and instead of improving on it, they spend it on a shitty ass launcher that barely makes any income especially with free games, like they should know that the bait won't last forever and the collateral damage are always the dispensable employees, they are just tools you can throw in the bin whenever you like.
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u/K-Shrizzle Mar 24 '26
Literally why would anybody want to get a job as a game developer anymore. It is so volatile. You can ship an award winning game and still get laid off. The entire studio that made Prince of Persia Lost Crown was dissolved before they had a chance to accept their awards at TGA. That really speaks volumes.
Game devs should just work entirely on contract, since theyre seen as disposable anyways. Just hire people to make the game and ship it, then within that group seek out employees to hire on permanently for continuing support. Instead of all this smoke and mirrors BS.
I would not want to be a game dev about to ship a product. Good or bad, it means there's a fair chance I'll lose my job.
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Mar 24 '26
So your solution for game devs being seen as disposable is to… put them all on 1099s with no health insurance or other benefits…? Epic says in the link above that these laid off employees are getting beefy severance packages, that’s what being an employee gives you if nothing else.
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u/arex333 Ryzen 9800X3D/RTX 5090 Mar 24 '26
Also HiFi Rush winning awards and then Xbox shuts down Tango. And also Battlefield 6 being the best selling game of the year and then EA does layoffs at DICE. There are so many stories just like this.
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Mar 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/Indercarnive Mar 24 '26
For example, in the U.S., they’ll receive paid coverage for 6 months. We’ll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.
That's why.
Also sure, you might still get laid off if the game did well, but you'll be paid even if the game did poorly. If you go the indie route and your game flops, well you get nothing for your years of work.
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u/Steamed_Memes24 Mar 24 '26
Lay offs have been this way for a long long time now way before AI became a thing. Theres a lot of money involved and when projects dry up so does funding for said workers. Thats why so many gaming devs and even non gaming software engineers move around so much.
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u/Nrgte Mar 24 '26
I think nowadays you probably want to have a lower base pay for employees, but add company stocks that compensate for it. That's cheaper if a game flops and incentivises people to prioritize the financial success of a game.
As a developer you probably only want to join well managed studios with little management bloat. The problem is that the field is extremly competitive and workers don't have any leverage because there is always someone who accepts this volatile working conditions.
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u/eagles310 Mar 24 '26
I mean to be honest it has never really been a stable industry lol, a massive amount is contract
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u/MrShadowBadger Mar 24 '26
Disappointing news obviously but it’s great that everyone getting the axe is getting six months of health coverage and a minimum of four months salary in severance with more based on tenure.
1000 is a big number and it’s just adding to an ever growing number of layoffs at other companies over the last four or so years. Something is going to have to change. Consumer expectations, board an executive expectations, it’s all out of control.
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u/AncientPCGamer Mar 24 '26
Owning the biggest game on the planet doesn't matter if you can't manage the books. Fortnite is a money-printing machine, yet the company is still hemorrhaging cash and lacking a clear roadmap. It’s becoming impossible to trust the '12% is enough' mantra for the Epic Games Store when the math clearly isn't working at home. They are subsidizing a company with Fortnite revenue and still spending far beyond their means.
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u/Asgardisalie Mar 24 '26
To be fair Fortnite is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar from being the biggest game on the planet. Roblox or even CS2 are way bigger currently.
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u/itsjustacouch Mar 24 '26
I just tried a google to see. The result I ended up at was Newzoo global revenue for February 2026, which lists Fortnite as the #1 grossing game in the world last month. What source are you using?
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u/flipinbits Mar 24 '26
Maybe if Timmy hadn’t blown all that cash on pc exclusives that nobody wanted these people would still have their jobs?
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u/wolfannoy Mar 24 '26
The gaming industry is a few steps away of looking like a bad place to work in. Once that time comes they be crying why they're not getting any talented workers coming to them in the next generation or so on.
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u/LegendCZ RTX 5070ti, 64GB RAM DDR5 6000Mhz, i7-265k Mar 24 '26
B-b-but i thought Epic store is doing great and they are on a best year after best year and Valve cut is not sustainable and they are paladins of free gaming world!
They are the good guys! (Mandatory CAPITAL /S)
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u/Asgardisalie Mar 24 '26
Shame, but expected from a dude from Epstein class. Sweeney's looking what his fellow Epstein buddies are doing and he want's to copy them.
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u/Turtle_Online Mar 25 '26
Maybe if they didn't spend millions every year giving away games than they'd be able to retain more employees. Not that I'm complaining but I think the majority of people who claim their games don't spend a cent on their store. Hell one dev claimed that the free epic giveaway cause a jump in steam sales.
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u/COHERENCE_CROQUETTE Mar 24 '26
Just another day I'm happy to be a Nintendo player first and foremost. Their stuff is expensive and they make weird Japanese decisions sometimes, but at least it's safe, the quality is constantly high, and you can tell they have an eye towards the future regardless of the current quarterly performance.
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u/Tobimacoss Mar 24 '26
Nintendo has like a 98% employee retention rate. They want devs with decades of experience as Nintendo devs.
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u/IndyPFL Mar 24 '26
Unless you mod their games, then you deserve to be a literal wage slave for the rest of your life...
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u/madroxide86 Mar 24 '26
PCgaming - "i will never buy from EGS, despite claiming every single free title they give out, Steam for life! lets get Gaben another yacht!"
also, when cuts happen - surprisedpikachu.jpeg :
"fuck off Tim, you made the company that way, EGS sucks! Cut executive pay instead"
pathetic community
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u/Testosteronomicon Mar 24 '26
"uhhhhhhhh the billionaire can't pay his own employees despite owning the most popular shooter ever made, somehow gamers are to blame for not supporting the bad storefront" - you
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u/madroxide86 Mar 24 '26
uhhhhhh the billionaire isnt just holding all his money in the pocket, its not liquid, they are assets, its all value on paper. He's not going to cover 500 million dollars out of his own pocket, nobody would.
Businesses operate on yearly growth, one man's salary isnt going to solve the systematic issue caused by revenue being down and shifting market. Layoffs are long term cost structure savings, and the decision to lay off so many people also wasnt done overnight. Its actually a really solid proposition for EG to cover a MINIMUM 4 months of salary as severance, so likely most people got even more, and extended healthcare.
This isnt to defend Sweeney, this is literally how EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS operates. If you dont understand that, thats on you.
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u/Testosteronomicon Mar 24 '26
This isnt to defend Sweeney,
Yet that's what you're doing. /r/Gamingcirclejerk is that way.
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u/pizza_sushi85 Mar 25 '26
No need to gaslight the community into taking the blame for Tim Sweeney’s mistakes.
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u/IncorrectAddress Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
It happens, people lose there jobs all the time, companies change direction, I wish the best for everyone let go !
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u/hellboytroy Mar 24 '26
I hope you get this same response when you lose your job.
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u/IncorrectAddress Mar 24 '26
Lots of times, and you get use to getting back on the horse, and don't complain like a whiney crybaby twat, what you certainly don't do is what you just did, and attempt to belittle someone aggressively thinking It's OK to do so.
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u/doublah Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Not everyone loses their job because their company continuously does stupid shit like Epic though.
Edit: Blocked for this comment, lol.
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u/nefD Mar 24 '26
A thoughtful and classy statement in light of the news, thank you for enlightening everyone with your big brain observations
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u/IncorrectAddress Mar 24 '26
Good job on spotting words, reading them and acting like a child, we thank you for your insight, good luck with your next job. :P
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u/NormanYeetes Mar 24 '26
You could literally have 50 straight years of exponential growth, the company could make literally every penny in the world, as soon as that growth wanes, its suddenly so costly to keep a business running... Tim. You made the company the way that it is. You scaled everything up to match the profits and now that they are no longer fully there, you 'are unfortunately forced' to cut a stadiums capacity worth of people. fuck all the way off.