Today, Epic announced that it’s laying off more than 1,000 employees. Alongside that news, the studio also revealed that it’s killing three Fortnite game modes: Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Battle Stage. Rocket Racing is particularly notable, since it was one of the key pillars of Epic’s original push into a multi-game metaverse.
“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” the company says in its announcement, adding that it’s “grateful for everyone who played.”
And there’s another mode dying on April 16: Ballistic. This is a 5v5 FPS that transplants Counter-Strike’s ultra-competitive vibes into the Fortnite ecosystem, and this shutdown seems to be the one the community is taking the hardest. You can just look at the comments under Epic’s announcement to see the community’s outcry – many believed Ballistic could have had a robust future with more support from the devs.
But with 1,000 fewer people at Epic, the odds of any given Fortnite feature getting long-term support are starting to look a lot worse. CEO Tim Sweeney blamed a “downturn in Fortnite engagement” for the layoffs, and if one mode isn’t able to keep fans playing – and spending – as much as the next, it seems the trip to the chopping block is inevitable.
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