Epic Games lays off 830 employees

Fortnite's game developer, Epic Games, is laying off 16 percent of its staff. The reason are losses in the Metaverse division.

Epic Games has laid off 830 employees, about 16 percent of its workforce, as part of large-scale restructuring measures.

CEO Tim Sweeney justified the move by citing increased costs: "We've been spending a lot more money than we've been taking in for a while, investing in Epic's next evolution and building out Fortnite as a Metaverse-fueled ecosystem for developers."

He had "long been optimistic" that he could "get through this transition without layoffs." In retrospect, this was "unrealistic."

Despite cost-cutting measures, Sweeney said the company was "still far from financially sustainable." Layoffs were "the only way."

The company also announced that it would sell its music platform Bandcamp to Songtradr.