Unironically, no. They really thought Fortnite was going to be the new Minecraft and compete with Netflix/Disney for time and attention.
Comment on Epic Games to update Unreal Engine pricing for devs not making games
Wootz@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not at all surprised.
This bit got me: Evidently, all of Epic Games’ business had been “heavily funded by Fortnite” in the last six years, and different parts of the company became “disconnected” from their revenue streams.
…Did you not see this coming? Have you really not had a plan for when Fortnite started to lose momentum? I get that having a product blow up will leaf to a period of manic spending because your cash flow suddenly feels infinite, but come on. You’re not a small player in this, Epic. You’ve been around since the 90s. You know better than to mindlessly ride the wave of a success. Of course the Fortnite money was going to run out. That’s why you invested so heavily in UE5, right?.. Right?
hansl@lemmy.world 8 months ago
spezz@lemmynsfw.com 8 months ago
Fucking idiots. I swear, i dont know why we place CEOs and richer folks, in general, on a pedestal so much.
papel@lemmyf.uk 8 months ago
People have this tendency to associate wealth with knowledge, or business savvy. For many companies, it’s just a matter of “creative accounting” coupled with a psychopath CEO and lucking out. Epic lucked out with Fortnite Battle Royale, don’t forget their original “save world” was a total flop as a paid product
Chailles@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not to mention the amount of money they literally burn through EGS. If I remember correctly, the plan was that it wouldn’t be profitable for another 3/4 years (by 2027).
moody@lemmings.world 8 months ago
They started shilling for Shell to extend that income a little bit more as well.
pory@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Their plan for when Fortnite stopped pulling in money was for their Epic Games Store (that they propped up by paying devs lump sums just to not launch their games on Steam) to actually make Steam levels of money because surely exclusives and freebies will make people spend money on their store. Turns out there’s a lot of people that will never spend a dime on EGS, either because they won’t install it or only use it for the free games.
So all that Fortnite money they used to pay devs to not release their games on Steam ended up being a failed investment, and they’ve had to change their incentives from “we’ll give you a huge lump sum that’s about equal to what you’d have made with a successful Steam launch” to “well we’ll give you a better revenue split if you launch exclusively on our store that guarantees you get 10% of sales volume compared to Steam”. Turns out 60% of 1m sales is better than 80% of 100k sales.
Vordus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
But wootz! Don’t you see! Fortnite was making inroads into the metaverse, and we all know that whoever cracks the metaverse concept is going to reap infinite profits right? Because that’s certainly not a weird dystopian sci-fi pipe dream or anything! It was going to be all smooth sailing straight into forever profits!
Aceticon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Surelly there are infinite virtual profits to be had in virtual universes!
sfgifz@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Few understand.
Radicaldog@lemmy.world 8 months ago
At least they got a touch closer than most, hosting virtual concerts etc. Just… No-one I know went to one.