Fortnite maker Epic Games laying off 16% of its workforce
Fortnite game developer Epic Games on Thursday announced to lay off 16 per cent percent of its employees, impacting nearly 870 people.
Epic’s Fortnite Games has announced that new season of the game is being pushed to Wednesday, June 17, while The Device live event has been delayed until Monday, June 15, as several US cities are under protests over the death of African-American George Floyd in Minnesota.
Chapter 2, Season 3 has been delayed three times now. The season was scheduled to be launched on June 6 and was last moved to June 11.
“Recent events are a heavy reminder of ongoing injustices in society, from the denial of basic human rights to the impact of racism both overt and subtle against people of color. We’re acutely aware of the pain our friends, families, team members, players, and communities are experiencing,” reads a post on the Epic Games site.
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On May 25, George Floyd was killed in Minnesota by a police officer, who used the weight of his knee to suffocate Floyd for nearly nine minutes. In the weeks following, protests around the world have demanded justice against the assailing officer as well as the three officers who stood idly by as Floyd was being killed.
Epic creative director Donald Mustard noted in a tweet that the studio has more than 1,000 people working from home on Fortnite.
Epic Games has announced its partnership with OnePlus, saying that free-to-play battle royale game is getting support for 90 frames per second on the OnePlus 8 series.
Many other planned tech and gaming events have been delayed or postponed because of the protests in the US. Electronic Arts has delayed an event for its popular Madden NFL series, Google has delayed an Android announcement and Sony has delayed its PS5 event.
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