Epic Games laying off 16% of employees

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Epic Games, an American video game and software developer and publisher, is laying off around 16% of its employees to reduce costs.

"For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators," CEO Tim Sweeney wrote Thursday in a statement.

"I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect, I see that this was unrealistic," he added.

Sweeney noted that the job cuts will involve approximately 830 employees, or about two-thirds outside the firm's core development.

The company, in addition, is selling its music platform Bandcamp and spinning off most of its services in SuperAwesome, which will result in around 250 people leaving Epic through its divestitures, he added.

While Bandcamp is joining Songtradr, a music marketplace company supporting artists, SuperAwesome's advertising business will become an independent company under the SuperAwesome brand.

Sweeney said the company ended up "far short" of financial sustainability, adding "layoffs are the only way, and that doing them now and on this scale will stabilize our finances."

Dozens of companies, especially in the technology sector, have been cutting jobs, as many industries are struggling with lower income, falling advertisement revenue, and fears of a recession in the US economy.

In recent months, Uber, Reddit, Disney, 3M, Amazon, Yahoo, Affirm, Zoom, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, PayPal, and Google's parent company, Alphabet, have laid off workers by thousands.