Linux Gaming @lemmy.ml sirsquid @lemmy.ml 9 mo. ago

Epic Games sheds 830 people due to 'spending way more money than we earn'

www.gamingonlinux.com Epic Games sheds 830 people due to 'spending way more money than we earn'

Recent industry news doing the rounds is from Epic Games, who yesterday publicly shared an email that was sent by Tim Sweeney about laying off 16% of the company.

41 comments

How the fuck do you manage to lose money with all those microtransactions from whales AND selling games with no physical media for 60+ dollars a pop!? I guess the cocaine and hookers wont pay for themselves.
- They aren't. Epic continues to make ever more and more record amounts of money quarter after quarter. Layoffs have nothing to do with revenue in the gaming industry.
  
  I know that. The point was to show how absurd what they said was. And they could have said they were streamlining their business or whatever euphamism they want to use instead of lying about how profitable they are. And their investors probably would have taken that better than the company claiming that theyre "spending more than they earn."
  
  It actually does. If profit goes down (i.e. they're still making lots of money), they do layoffs to keep profit margins at the target level. It doesn't matter if they're still making tons of money, they cut costs if they're not making as much money as they forecasted.
  
  Layoffs have nothing to do with revenue in the ~~gaming~~ any industry.
  
  FTFY
  
  Its all about shareholders. Layoffs generate less costs. Less costs mean more income. More income means more dividends, more dividends means more share value.
  
  For short term for sure.
- Investing in metaverse bs
I'm sure this has nothing to do with the upcoming SAG-AFTRA strike since no deal was reached yesterday. I'm sure Epic is ensuring that no union workers are being fired immediately before an authorized strike.

https://deadline.com/2023/09/sag-aftra-video-game-strike-talks-no-deal-1235559424/
- Honestly, I'll bet it truly doesn't. Lots of places are laying off lots of workers right now, and Epic spent money like there's no tomorrow (and now it's tomorrow).
  
  True, but the timing is extremely suspect. They could have laid them off at any time in the past weeks or months.
  
  It may be a coincidence, but when it comes to corporations and their bottom line, there are rarely coincidences.
- Isn't that strike for voice actors? These layoffs are of IT people.
The word sheds made me shudder. I wonder if the author was just copying verbatim from an Epic press release? Who but corpo snakes, habitual shedders of skin in service of new exploitative endeavors, would use such a word?
- I wonder if the author was just copying verbatim from an Epic press release?
  
  No, I just chose that wording.
  
  Who but corpo snakes, habitual shedders of skin in service of new exploitative endeavors, would use such a word?
  
  Well, me, obviously.
  
  Seems really fucking weird to focus so much on the word like this.
  
  Shrug, in that case you're just a shitty writer.
There's no way they're losing money with Fortnite and Unreal 5 in their hands. Literal money printing machines. They're bullshitting hard.
- They says FORTNITE failed to increase in popularity. These fucktards will never have enough
  
  It's kind of like my company. We just did layoffs because we missed revenue targets. We were still quite profitable, just not as profitable as we estimated at the beginning of the year, so we need to make cost cuts to keep the profit margins we're looking for.
  
  Well yeah it was an internet gigatrend and it peaked. It's a steady loss on players but they're gonna sit there and lie to my face like they aren't making money hand over fist on skins from the addicted still on it.
Is that what we're calling firing now? Shedding?

May the workers find a new job soon (not likely) and a big FUCK YOU to Epic!
For all those who’ve lost their jobs, I’m sorry, and hope you land on your feet. For Epic…
Company responsible for one of the most played games on the planet unable to pay its workers. Feels like someone at Epic is horribly irresponsible with finances, or just maybe infinite growth is impossible and harms everyone below the execs.
Maybe you assholes should stop buying exclusives and make your launcher not a piece of shit? IDK, just spitballing here...
- If they wouldn't keep their user stats artificially with these exclusives, even more heads would roll.
Maybe spend some of it on a good app rather than marketing and exclusive deals, well or fire your workers and hope that accident of a game store will fix itself I guess!
What if they just stopped doing that instead of firing people?
- Yeah they could stop giving away free games in a weak attempt to get people to use their shitty sub-par service. That probably costs them a good bit.
  
  The only games on Epic I "own" are the free games I've cared enough to grab... and I still have opened Epic exactly zero times to play any of them. Pointless.
  
  That was exactly my first thought. Getting exclusives and giving out free games is not cheap. Epic brought this on themselves and like any corporation they're punishing their employees during downturns.
Management fucked up, workers pay for it, witnesses saw that the sky is blue. News at '11.
fuck epic games
At first I read "shreds"...
- Well how's the wife?
  
  To shreds you say?
- To shreds you say?
So Epic games can just cut 830 people because they're "spending way more than they earn" and nobody bats an eye. But when I cut 830 people because I spend way more than I earn, I'm "committing assault" and am "a menace to society."
- amen
This and selling Bandcamp on to some shady ad(?) firm would not make me want to choose Unreal Engine if I was looking for a new one after the recent entshittification of Unity (I'd have gone for Godot anyway but ...)
- Unfortunately, for some projects, there just aren't as many options available right now, at least none that I know of.
  
  Godot seems pretty sweet for most use cases.
Hahahaha
I wonder what's the positions of the people they let go. I wonder if those jobs were automated, alot of companies are investing in AI nowadays.

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