Tim Sweeney claims Epic Games is now financially sound after last year's layoffs, and Bandcamp fumble

Epic Games, like many tech companies in the early 2020s, grew rapidly and then declared that they had made a mistake. The Fortnite and Unreal Engine maker has cut over 800 jobs in the last year. It also harmed and sold Bandcamp, which it had bought just a year before.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, said that the company had been spending more money than it was earning to invest in the next evolution and growth of Fortnite, a metaverse inspired ecosystem for creators. "I was optimistic that we would be able to power through this transition with no layoffs. But in retrospect, I realize that this was unrealistic."

Sweeney, however, declared today at an event for Unreal Engine Developers that the ship had been righted.

"We spent last year rebuilding, and really executing on all fronts," stated the CEO. "I am happy to report that the company has achieved new records for success and concurrency. Fortnite and Epic Games Store are no exception."

Sweeney stated that Fortnite's peak was 110 million active monthly users. According to Steve Allison, the Epic Games Store reached a new high in September with 70 million active monthly users.

Epic Games announced a new incentive today during the Unreal Fest presentation to encourage game developers to join the Epic Games Store. This is a deal that gamers will find more acceptable than the usual exclusivity deals.

Epic does not charge Unreal Engine royalties on Unreal Engine titles purchased through the Epic Games Store. Even for sales that are made outside of the Epic Games Store, such as Steam, the Unreal Engine royalty will be reduced from 5% to 3%, as long as the developer releases the game on EGS the day it is released. This applies to all platforms where both the game AND EGS are available: For many games, this will be PC only, but Epic has now released mobile versions of EGS for certain regions and continues to fight Apple and Google about its desire to sell games without paying fees.

Epic still offers a 100% revenue share deal for six months if games are launched exclusively on EGS. Even Ubisoft has given up on exclusivity, and is now releasing games on Steam from day one. It feels like the Epic exclusive PC gaming era is slowly fading away.