Even if it’s behind one of the most popular games in the world, Epic Games may not be faring as well as the world believes, according to Joost van Dreunen, who has been a leading industry analyst for a long time and is currently the author of SuperJoost Playlist where he comments on industry trends.
The embattled studio probably caught his eye when it laid off more than a thousand of its employees and had to work quickly to turn public sentiment around when it discovered that one of them was terminally ill. CEO Tim Sweeney’s assertion about layoffs having nothing to do with AI has been called into question in Dreunen’s analysis of why Epic and Fortnite are at the beginning of their end. He argues that gaming companies outside the US are looking into generative AI and creative ways to use it, which has yet to be done satisfactorily.
He also points to factors outside the purview of any gaming studio, such as an increased cost of living and one that Epic is already familiar with: an imbalance in platform holder rights that has been eating the studio’s profits while increasing its spending through legal costs.
“Empires don’t collapse all at once…They hollow out, slowly, until one day the walls come down and everyone acts surprised. We are currently somewhere in the middle of that process.”
Dreuner’s words may be a bitter pill to swallow for Epic, a studio that seemed like it would live forever. However, we’re hoping that it can confront its own mortality and find a suitable middle ground, keeping Fortnite and all the fun it brings alive in the process.
