EPIC is laying off 900 people so Tim Sweeney can follow his stupid dream of a Meataverse. He even said this in his "apology letter" where he writes, that he spends too much on metaverse, so he has to lay off people, but then he ends with the promise to continue to overspend on the same thing going forward.

He lays off 900 people, 1/3 of them even core people making his game(s).

It is stupid decisions like this that make the layoffs "necessary", not anything actually related to the development of games, when it comes to these big developers/publishers.

Don't let them fool you that this could not have been prevented.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic

For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.

and

About two-thirds of the layoffs were in teams outside of core development. Some of our products and initiatives will land on schedule, and some may not ship when planned because they are under-resourced for the time being. We’re ok with the schedule tradeoff if it means holding on to our ability to achieve our goals, get to the other side of profitability and become a leading metaverse company.

He is totally fine with crunch because he on purpose understaffed his core development teams, he is happy for an upcoming community event while having laid off all the staff for that and will continue to make the same mistake again, while laying off 900 people at a time where getting a new job is hard and where many of them rely on finding a new job or losing their working visas.

Fuck him! Do not defend him!