Epic Games has announced more than 1000 members of staff have been laid off and three Fortnite games will be scrapped in an attempt to cut costs.
“The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded,” explained Epic Games in a statement.
As part of the cuts, a trio of fan-favourite Fortnite game modes will be shut down this year. Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage will both go offline on April 16, while Rocket Racing will close in October. “We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” explained Epic Games.
i have done so much for this company and our games
so many late nights
so many weekends
so many live events, and competitive events, and new features, and new seasons
solid performance reviews every time
with multiple people mentioning how critical i am and what an impact i…
— Evanosaurus “Unrawrl Engine 5.7” Rex (@evankinney) March 24, 2026
More than 1000 members of staff have also been let go, including some hugely influential developers. “Together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing and closing some open roles, this puts us in a more stable place,” explained Epic Games, who’ll be paying affected developers six months worth of wages as part of the lay offs.
Epic Games blamed “industry-wide challenges” for the need to cut costs, including “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.” Last month, a report claimed video games were losing the “attention war” to porn and TikTok.
In the coming days, employers will see a stream of resumes of once-in-a-lifetime quality folks. An important thing to understand is that Epic never lowered our hiring standards as we grew, and the layoff wasn't a performance-based "rightsizing" as companies call it nowadays. It's… https://t.co/3SvyWNC04k
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 25, 2026
“Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimising Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers,” Epic Games added. However the rise of AI has nothing to do with the job cuts.
Back in 2023, Epic Games laid off 830 members of staff in an attempt to cut costs and earlier this month, they announced a price hike for Fortnite in-game currency V-bucks. “The cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot” so the company is “raising prices to help pay the bills,” they explained.
In other news, newly appointed Xbox boss Asha Sharma wants to make Xbox Game Pass more affordable following last year’s massive price hike.
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