Epic Games said Tuesday it will lay off more than 1,000 employees as the video game publisher takes steps to cut costs amid industry-wide pressures and company-specific challenges, the AP reports.The Cary, North Carolina-based company said the job cuts are not related to artificial intelligence, but rather reflect slowing growth, weak consumer spending and rising cost pressures in the gaming sector. It also added that titles like Fortnite are increasingly competing for users’ attention against social media and other digital entertainment platforms.The company said it is also dealing with internal hurdles, including being “in the early stages of returning to mobile-only” after a lengthy legal battle with Apple and Google over App Store payment systems.“We’re not here for the first time. Epic survived turmoil in the 1990s by moving from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; building console games in the 2000s with Gears of War; and moving toward online gaming with Paragon and Fortnite in 2012,” chief executive and founder Tim Sweeney said in a memo to employees.“Market conditions today are the worst seen since those early days, with massive upheaval in the industry as well as massive opportunities for the companies that come out on the other side as winners,” he said.Epic said it will lay off about 4,000 employees after the latest round of layoffs, about 20 percent of its workforce.The company last made large-scale job cuts in 2023, when it laid off 830 employees, or about 16 percent of its workforce at that time.
