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Mediatonic, the UK developer behind Fall Guys, has been severely impacted by expected job losses as a result of yesterday’s layoffs by Epic Games, though the studio itself will not be closed.
Epic Games acquired Mediatonic back in March 2021 after the studio’s battle royale Fall Guys blew up in popularity. The deal was meant to secure Mediatonic’s future. Now, despite the studio remaining open, that future looks very different indeed.
Last night, rumours swirled that the cuts were so deep the whole studio would close. But this isn’t the case, team members I’ve spoken to have said, and Epic Games itself has now confirmed.
“Mediatonic’s work on Fall Guys continues to be a company priority,” an Epic Games spokesperson told me today, despite dozens of Mediatonic staff now taking to social media to start looking for new positions elsewhere.
Staff I have heard from say the scale of the cuts is huge, and the picture remains unclear just how many people will remain.
Last night, as Epic confirmed a total of 830 people would leave the wider company, a photo from inside Mediatonic was shared on social media by Ed Fear, creator of the studio’s brilliant visual novel puzzler Murder by Numbers – himself a victim of the layoffs. The letters of Mediatonic’s logo had been rearranged to now read: “decimation”.
In a public statement, Epic said roughly 16 percent of its total headcount had been cut, with the majority – approximately two-thirds – from those working outside of Epic’s “core” focuses. A further 250 staff will depart as Epic shed other recent acquistions Bandcamp and SuperAwesome.
Epic’s core focuses include Unreal Engine and Fortnite, the latter of which retains numerous teams currently focused on building new battle royale seasons, an expected major driving mode, fresh musical experiences and a notable Lego collaboration.
Job losses at Mediatonic, according to posts shared by staff publicly on social media, look to cover almost every area of the business, from staff working in IT support, marketing, software development, and as character artists, gameplay programmers, level designers, producers and narrative staff.
A post by one affected staff member working on the studio’s narrative team stated that Mediatonic now had no writers left at all.
Yesterday also saw the announcement of expected job losses at UK studio Creative Assembly, after Sega’s cancellation of Hyenas.
