In light of Epic Games having recently laid off over 1,000 of its employees, CEO Tim Sweeney has been facing criticism for one of the affected employees being terminally ill, and as a result of the lay-offs, having lost his life insurance. The employee in question, Michael Prinke, joined Epic Games in 2019 as a technical writer and then became a programmer writer. His wife, Jenni Griffin, made a lengthy post on Facebook outlining the family’s current situation.
In her post, Griffin noted that Prinke is “currently fighting terminal brain cancer,” and said that, “because of the layoff, we didn’t just lose income—we lost his life insurance.” In response, Sweeney took to social media platform X to reveal that Epic Games has been communicating with the family, hoping to solve their issues with insurance.
“Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them,” he wrote. “There is high confidentiality around medical information, and it was not a factor in this layoff decision. Sorry to everyone for not recognizing this terribly painful situation and handling it in advance.”
Shortly after this, Griffin had updated her Facebook post, noting that “WE ARE IN TALKS WITH THE APPROPRIATE PEOPLE! WILL UPDATE SOON, LIKELY BY TUESDAY. THANK YOU.”
The announcement for the lay-offs was made last week, with Sweeney blaming the “downturn in Fortnite engagement,” which led to Epic Games “spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles, puts us in a more stable place.”
Sweeney also made note of “industry-wide challenges,” “tougher cost economics,” and the gaming industry’s spending having gone down in recent years. Looking to the future, he has noted that the company plans to continue supporting Fortnite with “awesome” experiences and more seasonal content, including gameplay, story, and live events. Epic Games also plans to continue the evolution of Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN, which will eventually lead to the development of Unreal Engine 6.
“What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year,” said Sweeney.
Sweeney has also made a note of the fact that employees affected by the lay-offs will get a severance package that includes four months’ of their salaries, with extras on top “based on tenure,” as well as six months of health care coverage. “We’ll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years,” he said.
In the meantime, developers still at Epic Games have spoken about needing to continue working, while also writing a sympathetic message for those affected by the lay-offs. “Our teams will have to pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward,” wrote gameplay producer Robby Williams on social media, “but we cannot even fully understand what kind of impacts this will have on the game for the rest of the year and likely beyond.”
