The world of video games never stops moving and changes come to adapt the industry with resistance and flexibility. In this hurricane of constant movement, Epic Games took new measures trying to shape the market dynamics and harming many individuals already immersed in this economically visceral scenario. The decision itself was the dismissal of approximately 900 employees, which shocked and was rightly criticized for making the lives of small people very difficult in the face of the huge companies that rule this world like cruel titans.
World Of Video Games Is Shaken By The Layoff Of Nine Hundred Epic Games Employees
Epic Games carried out a mass layoff of almost 900 employees, approximately 830 of them and 16% of its workforce. They state that around two-thirds of the layoffs happened to teams outside of central development. Approximately 250 people would be leaving their positions due to Epic Games’ divestments in Bandcamp and SuperAwesome. The reason is said to revolve around cutting costs without sacrificing development or lines of business, meaning business functions are disproportionately impacted compared to development functions.
Responding to whether there will be more layoffs, Epic Games denies this, stating that these changes already financially stabilize the business and that the entire objective of this process would be to make its cost structure more sustainable, believing that in this way, they will be able to achieve the objective. Additionally, they will continue hiring for critical roles while maintaining net zero emissions at this new size.
Related: Donald Mustard, Epic Games’ Chief Creative Officer Has Announced Retirement
Still, in the same report, Epic Games says it is focused on “successful initiatives” such as the next season of Fortnite and Chapter 5 of the game, Del Mar, Sparks, and Juno, and that their agenda remains intact. The employee cuts are not in any main project and they continue to invest in the development of Fortnite, Rocket League, and Fall Guys. It also including enhancing Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, Epic Games Publishing, Epic Online Services, Kids Web Services, MetaHuman, Twin Motion, Quixel Mega Scans, Capturing Reality, ArtStation, Sketchfab, and Fab.
Given as the main reason is Epic Games’ shutdown and withdrawal of investment from Bandcamp and most of SuperAwesome. Finally, they announced that they will have an extensive company meeting at the end of October to discuss all these efforts and “priorities”. We know that this is the market and the capitalist world that always aims for profit where we live, but we cannot help but think about how the lives of each of these employees were affected by such a process.
Related: Epic Games to Give Third-Party Developers Entire Revenue in Exchange for Exclusivity Deals
The job market is no longer easy, and it only becomes more difficult as time goes by, even more so for the artistic world, as has been recently demonstrated by the strike of screenwriters (now resolved after a long duration) and of actors who may reach the video game industry soon. The living and working conditions of a game developer are not very different and continue to be precarious, especially compared to those who control their lives without having the option to choose.
The orders that shake up the lives of thousands seem like a simple snap of the fingers to executives who prioritize only the income of their companies and equivalently, the shareholders who invest in these market forces. So for those blinded by power, they are just seeing numbers that must remain large, whoever is in the way, to them doesn’t matter.
We can only hope that these workers can rearrange themselves in the industry and keep an eye on the next administrative decisions of Epic Games, which until now has shown solidarity and care with the individual user, but in the end, it is just another company in this world commercial.
What do you think about this? Do you see reason in this layoffs? How do you feel towards Epic Games now? Let us know in the comments!
Source: Epic Games
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