TapTechNews October 2nd news, Epic Games announced a large-scale round of layoffs last year, dismissing over 800 employees, a large part of which belonged to the music store Bandcamp.
In a speech during the recent UnrealFest 2024 event, Epic Games' chief executive Tim Sweeney said that Epic Games is in a good financial position and has a solid execution.
Sweeney stated that the company's significant investment in itself and the rapid expansion in the virtual universe of Fortnite were the reasons behind the layoffs and said, 'I have long been optimistic that this transition could be accomplished without layoffs, but in retrospect, I think this is unrealistic.'
Sweeney said that 2024 is a more positive year for Epic Games both financially and in terms of service growth, and Fortnite and the Epic Games Store have set new records in terms of concurrent users.
According to Sweeney, the monthly active user peak of Fortnite has exceeded the 110 million mark, breaking all previous records. According to Steve Allison, the general manager of the Epic Games Store, by September 2024, the usage of the Epic Games Store also reached a peak, reaching 70 million monthly active users, which is another new record.
According to TapTechNews' previous report, Epic also announced that for any game that is synchronously launched first on the Epic Games Store (no need for exclusive first launch), the royalty rate of the Unreal Engine will be reduced from 5% to 3.5%. This change will take effect starting from January 1, 2025.