Epic Games has made a tactical error. On September 28, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company must lay off 830 employees due to cost reasons. However, on the same day, they sold an emote in the online shooter Fortnite, allowing players to make it rain money. This was not acceptable. The emote was removed after one hour.
This was the news: On September 28, a blog post by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was published. It was an email that had previously gone to the employees of Epic Games. In the email, Sweeney explained that they would be laying off 16% of the workforce, with 830 employees needing to go (via epicgames):
- Sweeney stated as a reason that the company has been earning less money than it spends for some time. Therefore, layoffs are now occurring.
- Fortnite is growing into a metaverse and becoming an ecosystem for creators. Sweeney had long been optimistic that this would be financially viable, but in retrospect, it was an unrealistic misjudgment. Fortnite is growing, but in the new business model, the profit margin is lower than during the Battle Royale hype.
- He then promises that the laid-off employees will land softly and receive some benefits. With these layoffs, Epic Games is financially stable.
New emote in the shop found to be in poor taste
This was the spicy part: On the same day that layoffs were announced, Fortnite sold the emote “Share the Wealth” in the cash shop (money for everyone).
With this emote, the Fortnite character holds bundles of cash up in the air, shakes them frantically, and throws them around. This is a motif from rap: “Making it rain money,” literally tossing money around in the club.
Epic removes the offer from the game after one hour
This was the reaction: The connection between layoffs and the flashy emote was immediately established online and criticized on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. It was perceived as cynical.
Epic then had to respond and removed the entire cash shop offering from Fortnite.
On Twitter, it was stated that they were aware of the problem. The daily offer would be back at the next reset.
In a statement, Epic confirmed the situation and said they noticed the error about an hour after the offer went live, and that the emote was removed from the shop (via kotaku).
Epic accused of burning too much money in the fight against Steam
How are the layoffs being discussed? The topic is sensitive because it is known that Tim Sweeney has invested a lot of money in his crusade to build the Epic Games Store as an alternative to Steam. Sweeney finds the 30% cut that Steam takes from developers too high and believes it stifles innovation in gaming. He accuses Google and Apple of the same.
In an attempt to challenge Steam’s quasi-monopoly, he is investing a lot of money in exclusive deals with PC publishers or in deals that allow the Epic Games Store to give away free games weekly.
Some accuse him of burning money here: the Epic Games Store offers too few features to compete with Steam.
