Stay Informed
Get Industry News In Your Inbox…
Sign Up Today
Epic Games is now “financially sound”, says CEO Tim Sweeney.
The Fortnite maker’s position was shared during Unreal Fest Seattle 2024, which Sweeney welcomed in on a brighter note than last year.
“Fortnite and the Epic Games Store have hit new records in concurrency and success,” he claimed.
“Fortnite hit 110 million monthly active users last holiday – an all-time peak – and this is all happening in the context of a game business that’s rapidly changing in a way that we’ve only seen a few times in our lifetimes as game developers.”
The record result comes in stark contrast to Unreal Fest 2023, when Sweeney acknowledged a “degradation in quality” was likely following over 800 layoffs – equating to 16% of the company’s workforce, but necessary to ensure the company wouldn’t “run out of money”.
Making changes
“Last year’s Unreal Fest began with some sad news,” Sweeney said during this year’s event. “The company had to get its finances in order and we’d just had some major layoffs. We’ve spent the last year rebuilding and also really executing solidly on all fronts.”
The year has also seen Epic’s continued battle with “monopoly rent collectors” Apple and Google, who Sweeney believes “limit what developers can do”.
Rebuilding at Epic Games has involved not only the development of open content marketplace Fab, but has also led to the Epic Games Store’s release on mobile, with Rocket League Sideswipe, Fall Guys and Fortnite in tow.
This September, the store reached a record 70 million monthly active users.
“We want to get as many players as possible to install the Epic Games Store on mobile before launching the first wave of games from third-party developers this holiday,” said Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison.
“Our team has been working tirelessly to bring key mobile titles to the store.”
Among those key titles is Ark Ultimate Mobile Edition, revealed for the store during the presentation, bringing a series with $50 million in mobile revenue to its name to Epic’s platform later this year.
As reported by MobileGamer.biz, Allison noted during a roundtable that up to 50 third-party titles will be ready for release on the Epic Games Store by the end of 2024.
Unreal Engine’s upcoming royalty fee reduction will also aim to incentivise developers to release their games on the Epic Games Store simultaneously with other app stores, further broadening the library it can offer to players in competition with Apple and Google.
