It’s rue that the AI-fueled RAM shortage has put outsized pressure on Valve to raise hardware prices because it can’t leverage the same economies of scale and supply chain pricing power that its PC and console gaming competitors have access to. It’s also true that showing off a $500 million yacht while raising prices is a bad, some might even say obscene, look.
But those in glass Fortnite houses probably shouldn’t cast stones. People immediately responded to Sweeney’s uncharacteristic jab at the lives of the rich and famous by pointing out that just months ago he fired 1,000 employees. “Hey Tim when was the last time Valve laid off their employees?” one person on X wrote. “Oh yeah never?”
Roughly half of those laid off staff, which Sweeney previously said any company besides Epic Games would be lucky to have, have been assembled on an ex-Epic Awesome People List to help game industry recruiters reach out. PC Gamer spoke to a few of them about what it was like having the rug pulled out from under them at one of the seemingly most successful companies in modern gaming history.
“The layoff was very sudden and we only had a slight hint that the company revenue wasn’t doing well,” one anonymous employee said. Epic Games still hasn’t confirmed exactly what the financial issues it was facing were, and cited costs beyond declines in Fortnite engagement. Those included a major crusade against big tech platforms like Apple and Google that has only recent begun paying dividends.
I guess the moral of this story is that CEOs are not your friends, though it is occasionally cathartic to watch them fight each other.