Fortnite developer Epic Games laying off 16% of staff

Hundreds of people working at one of the world's top gaming companies based in the Triangle are without a job Thursday.

CEO Tim Sweeney announced that Epic Games, the developer of the globally popular game Fortnite, is laying off about 830 employees across the company.

"A lot of tech companies overhire, which sends off a situation where you have people who are under-utilized," Jim Verdonik, Corporate, Security Lawyer.

Tech-based attorney Jim Verdonik of Raleigh says several factors may have contributed to the layoffs at Epic Games, including a loss of revenue from sales.

"Look at epic revenue in 2022; it was not quite 1.2 billion dollars," Verdonik, Corporate, Security Lawyer, said.

Owner Tim Sweeney backed this reasoning in a press release, stating, "For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn.

Verdonik says legal expenses are costly. The company just asked the Supreme Court to get involved in its lawsuit with Apple because Apple banned Fortnite from its game store.

The layoffs come months after Epic Games paid a hefty fine to the FTC -settling violations of child privacy laws.

"They have a settlement with the FTC for $520 million dollars," Verdonik said. "Which is a large amount of money for any company, for a private company in North Carolina, it is a huge amount.

In an email to WRAL, Cary, Mayor Harold Weinbrecht called the layoffs disappointing.

"While the layoffs are disappointing, Cary is proud to have EPIC games headquartered here. We look forward to helping them with their future plans. As with all our businesses, we want to see them thrive and prosper."

It's unclear if these layoffs impact Epic Games' plans to expand their HQ from here to the old site of Cary Towne Center Mall.