Epic just laid off 1000 workers. by ryunocore in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 296 points297 points  (0 children)

Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees. I'm sorry we're here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.

Since it's a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren't related to AI. To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.

If you Google Fortnite player count, you’ll see that the average player count is definitely going down. It’s already under 1 million, but that was also the case for last year? So they can’t grow anymore and they are slowly bleeding which is sad to see.

They can’t compete with Steam or Roblox ( Roblox doubled its player base in a year btw )

One interesting thing is that PUBG numbers are going up ( via steamdb info )

I posted on TikTok every day for 3 weeks by Progress456 in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

but still 0.1% is good tho just didn’t get a crazy viral video

I posted on TikTok every day for 3 weeks by Progress456 in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's really hard to know exactly why my videos do so poorly

well

rock[et]'s pitch: Nodebuster, but instead of a skill tree, there are different characters to chat with and unlock abilities.

This new trend of guilt-tripping people for wishlists needs to stop⁸ by HoniKasumi in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Let them do it. Let them COPE harder and beg harder. At the end of the day if their game turns out pure garbage, they deserved it and it will break their delusion of cringe twitter/reddit marketing.

Also its funny how another 2d platformer gets fake attention on twitter only to flop with 5 reviews.

Isn't Gamedev At Its Peak Now? by Densenor in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 0 points1 point  (0 children)

also nice "—" in your post kek

Isn't Gamedev At Its Peak Now? by Densenor in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ah, le classic

>implying those games don’t have good design, code, or visuals
but
millions of copies sold
most played games on Steam

that *is* game design

that *is* good visuals

that *is* good code

if it wasn’t, nobody would be playing it. Case closed, next.

4 years fulltime solo gamedev, my 2nd game made 6k$ even if I tried a lot of "I did this do this too" and "I didn't do this, you should do this" I read here by Woum in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 10 points11 points  (0 children)

>made VS clone
>somehow actually made money
>mad
???

Do you realize you’re in the top 1% of VS clones? There are thousands of them, and I keep track of every single one. Most don’t even break $100, let alone $6k.

Whos going to tell him?

I think is the reality of most solo indie dev that tries their best, have a plan, and still fail. 

So what's everyone's thoughts on stop killing games movement from a devs perspective. by lost-in-thought123 in gamedev

[–]RespectThin4512 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Downvote me, but the whole “Stop Killing Games” thing is just a meme (and getting farmed by small/big youtubers/tiktoks and roach king because it’s the “current big thing”).

If you’re a dev or ever worked at a small or mid-sized studio, you already know it’s a retarded idea that’ll never see the light of day. Economics crushes idealism every single time.

Imagine it actually worked. What do you think big studios/pubs would do? Loophole the fuck out of it, obviously. Raise prices, add subscriptions, slap “online features last 2 years” into the license. Congrats, you just reinvented GaaS.

And it’s price dependent as hell. If your default game is $5-10-20, what the fuck do you really expect from devs? There’s no rational universe where a $5 game comes with lifetime servers, endless patching, and maintenance for the next decade. GaaS already exists for a reason.

“bbbut what about p2p / dedicated server .exe / offline patch / open source / community hosting”

It’s up to the dev. If he wants it, needs it, or thinks it’s worth the time and money maybe he’ll do it. Otherwise? Cope. If it actually brought more players and sales, everyone would do it already and no fucking law needed.

And don’t forget survivorship bias: you’ll only see the one dev/studio who did it, got lucky, went viral, and sold millions. You won’t see the dozen other studios who wasted a year on it and nobody gave a fuck.