Epic Games, the maker of the hugely popular game Fortnite, is laying off roughly 16% of its workforce, according to a memo sent to employees.
In addition to the 870 job cuts, Epic also plans to sell Bandcamp, the online music site it bought in 2022, according to reports.
CEO Tim Sweeney said the company had tried to cut costs but that it was "spending way more money than we earn.”
"Epic folks around the world have been making ongoing efforts to reduce costs, including moving to net zero hiring and cutting operating spend on things like marketing and events,” Sweeney wrote.
"We concluded that layoffs are the only way, and that doing them now and on this scale will stabilize our finances.”
The CEO insisted that the layoffs would occur "without breaking development or our core lines of businesses.”
In addition to Fortnite, which boasts some 400 million registered users around the world, Epic also developed Unreal Engine, which was used to create Fortnite as well as other popular games including Gears of War.
As for Bandcamp, it will join Songtradr, which essentially runs a music marketplace. Bandcamp itself is a platform designed for artists to make more money from their music than on streaming platforms like Spotify.
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