Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 People, Will Shut Down Fortnite Rocket Racing, Ballistic, And Festival Battle Stage
Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, is laying off over 1,000 employees. The news dropped via a statement posted on the company’s website, signed by Epic’s founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. The announcement is also prefaced with the sentence “this note was sent to Epic employees today.”
Fortnite also posted an update to X stating that it will shut down three of Fortnite’s newer modes: Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage (Fortnite Festival’s PVP mode). “We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” the post states. Rocket Racing will be live until October 2026, while Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage will each go offline on April 16, with Fortnite’s 40.20 update. Presumably, many of the laid-off workers will have been working in these departments.
Sweeney’s announcement cites “downturn in Fortnite engagement” as the primary reason for the layoffs, claiming that the decline began in 2025 and that the studio hasn’t recovered since. It also blames broad industry-wide changes, like slower growth and low console sales, as well as challenges “unique to Epic,” all of which generally have to do with constant Fortnite updates on console, PC, and mobile platforms.
Notably, the message does not say the company plans to replace workers with AI. “Since it’s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren’t related to AI,” Sweeney writes. “To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.”
Epic recently made headlines for raising the price of V-Bucks, Fortnite’s in-game currency. While 1000 V-Bucks used to go for $8.99, that same dollar amount now only gets players 800 V-Bucks. “The cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot and we’re raising prices to help pay the bills,” the announcement reads. The move was, unsurprisingly, unpopular, and many online mocked the sentiment that such a large company would use the phrase “to help pay the bills.”
Fortnite’s newest season began last week, on March 19; that same day marked the game’s return to the Google Play store.
Despite being less than 3 months in, 2026 has not seen the end of the years-long trend of games industry layoffs. Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics laid staff off last week. Battlefield Studios laid staff off after launching one of the most successful games of 2025. Ubisoft laid off over 100 employees at Red Storm Entertainment. Highguard launched and was fully shut down just weeks later. Riot Games laid off 80 employees following 2XKO’s launch. Last month, Sony shut Bluepoint Games down.
Game Informer sends its regards and wishes the best for all the developers at Epic who have been affected by today’s cuts. It is a hard time to be a game developer.
