Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says 1,000 devs laid off over Fortnite slump are "once-in-a-lifetime quality folks" — asserts the cuts weren't performance-based

One of this week's biggest and most surprising pieces of gaming news was the shocking announcement that Epic Games has laid off 1,000 employees, with the developer and publisher pointing to an ongoing "downturn in Fortnite engagement" across Xbox, PC, PS5, and other platforms that ultimately led to Epic "spending significantly more than we're making" and making steep cuts "to keep the company funded."

The Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, and Fortnite firm noted that together with $500 million savings achieved through other cost-cutting measures in areas like contracting and marketing, this layoff "puts us in a more stable place."

The community's reaction to the news has been scathingly negative, however, with many criticizing Epic fiercely for laying off 1,000 workers — many of whom have played instrumental roles in supporting Fortnite for many years — even as it continues to pay UEFN map creators and sign deals with Hollywood actors to appear in the free-to-play battle royale title. And, y'know, as CEO Tim Sweeney remains a billionaire.

As frustrations with Epic's cuts mounted on Tuesday evening, Sweeney took to social media to give a new statement in addition to his announcement of the layoffs. He recognized the workers let go as "once-in-a-lifetime quality folks," and made it clear that the layoffs were not a "performance-based "'rightsizing.'"

"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," he wrote in a post on X (Twitter). "It's a sound bet that anyone with Epic Games on their resume is in the top few percent of their discipline."

Unsurprisingly, that wasn't exactly received well by the community, with many angry that Sweeney was singing praise for Epic Games' workers mere hours after laying them off from the company. That almost led to his post getting "ratioed"; at the time of writing, it has 5,100 comments — many of which are critical — and 6,300 likes.

"I'm sorry, but today you've completely ruined Epic and Fortnite's reputation. You can't just lay off over 1,000 employees, many of whom had been with the company for more than seven years or were exceptionally talented. You've made a huge mistake, and you're only going to end up losing everything you've built," wrote one commenter, accruing nearly 10,000 likes.

"What? This is the most ridiculous statement to make," said another. "Why not just keep them? You cannot seriously think its okay to lay off that many people and have this be the response. Ridiculous."

Other replies range from "I really wish you’d at least apologize" to "you should be guillotined," but in general, people aren't happy — and they're worried about the future of Fortnite now that huge swathes of devs that were maintaining and creating content for it are gone.

It's a more than valid concern, though what frustrates me the most is that here we are, seeing yet another big wave of video game industry layoffs that have gone on for four years now and don't seem to be stopping any time soon. It seems every week new cuts come down somewhere in the industry, and it's very deflating. My heart goes out to everyone affected by these cuts and others.

🗨️ What do you think of Sweeney's comments?

In the wake of Epic Games laying off 1,000 developers, many feel that Sweeney singing their praises comes off as rather tone deaf. Some, though, argue it's good that he's signaling to other companies that they're excellent workers, as this will hopefully help them get hired elsewhere.

How do you feel about what Sweeney said? Let me know in the comments, and vote in our poll.

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