General Gaming News.

[BrawlMan]

And we aren't just talking low-level employees here. Something is really wrong about this.

"Low" or "high" level should not matter as this shouldn't have happened in the first place. Epic and Sweeny really need to fuck off.

 

[thebobmaster]

"Low" or "high" level should not matter as this shouldn't have happened in the first place. Epic and Sweeny really need to fuck off.

No, I agree. I just meant this is beyond even the standard "Big corpo lays off a bunch of low-level employees to save their own bottom line and increase profits".

 

[FakeSympathy]

US bans any new consumer-grade routers not made in America

: Unfortunately, there aren't many options unless you're Starlink

www.theregister.com

So much for free market.

And here I was trusting "Made in China" label more than "Made in America".

While it is a very unlikely case (as in, there is a better chance of the second coming of Jesus Christ happening tomorrow), I hope this creates new job opportunities at the production line because of the increased demand. Wishful thinking, I know, but it might be the only good thing coming out of all this

 

[CriticalGaming]

GUYS!!!! Switch 2 sales are poor, what should we do!?

I have an idea:

Switch 2 Gets Price Hike For Physical Games Starting With Yoshi

Digital versions of Nintendo-published games will be cheaper than the hard copies

kotaku.com

 

[Zykon TheLich]

GUYS!!!! Switch 2 sales are poor, what should we do!?

I have an idea:

Switch 2 Gets Price Hike For Physical Games Starting With Yoshi

Digital versions of Nintendo-published games will be cheaper than the hard copies

kotaku.com

"It’s not yet completely clear if this means digital versions of future games will be cheaper than the current standard price or if Nintendo’s physical games will be priced higher than they have been so far this console generation."

Hmmm... I wonder...

 

[Xprimentyl]

GUYS!!!! Switch 2 sales are poor, what should we do!?

I have an idea:

Switch 2 Gets Price Hike For Physical Games Starting With Yoshi

Digital versions of Nintendo-published games will be cheaper than the hard copies

kotaku.com

I've always wondered how the industry might address the fact that digital purchases mitigate the cost of physical media, never thought the solution would be to raise the prices on physical media, but fully should have expected something like this. Why lower the price for the digital version when you can just RAISE the price of the physical version making the digital version objectively "cheaper," and call the offset a convenience fee?

 

[Gordon_4]

And here I was trusting "Made in China" label more than "Made in America".

While it is a very unlikely case (as in, there is a better chance of the second coming of Jesus Christ happening tomorrow), I hope this creates new job opportunities at the production line because of the increased demand. Wishful thinking, I know, but it might be the only good thing coming out of all this

Well if the comment section on the article is be believed - I’m no expert myself - then the risk is essentially all in software. So you could in theory have all your ISP shitbox routers manufactured in China but as long as your company is the one putting on the firmware then you’ve mitigated most of the risk.

 

[Ezekiel]

Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social)

BREAKING: Epic Games is laying off more than 1,000 workers today, sources tell Bloomberg News. Story hitting shortly

bsky.app

Layoffs everywhere!

About a quarter of their workforce. Meaning approximately 3000 left. I don't see why a company that barely makes any games should need 3000 employees.


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

This note was sent to Epic employees today:

Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees. I'm sorry we're here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we're spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.

Some of the challenges we're facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics; current consoles selling less than last generation's; and games competing for time against other increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment.

And some of our challenges are unique to Epic. Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we're only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world's billions of smartphones; and in being the industry's vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.

Since it's a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren't related to AI. To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.

What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we'll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.

This isn't our first time being here. Epic survived upheavals in 1990's with the move from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; in the 2000's building console games with Gears of War; and in 2012 moving to online gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Each time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed leadership position.

Market conditions today are the most extreme we've seen since those early days, with massive upheaval in the industry accompanied by massive opportunity for the companies that come out as winners on the other side. That's what we're aiming to do for our players, and we aim to bring other like-minded developers in the industry along on the journey to build an increasingly open and vibrant future of entertainment together.

At Epic, we pride ourselves in only hiring the industry's best, so it is very painful to part with so many talented people. The folks impacted by the layoffs will receive a severance package that includes at least four months of base pay, with more based on tenure. We’re also extending Epic-paid healthcare coverage.

For example, in the U.S., they’ll receive paid coverage for 6 months. We’ll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.

We'll have a company meeting Thursday to talk about the roadmap in more detail.

-Tim

 

[CriticalGaming]

Pokémon Center Employee Stabbed To Death In Tokyo

A male attacker wielding two knives killed the female staffer, then himself

kotaku.com

Pokemon causes violence....or idol obsession i dunno.

 

[BrawlMan]

Pokémon Center Employee Stabbed To Death In Tokyo

A male attacker wielding two knives killed the female staffer, then himself

kotaku.com

Pokemon causes violence....or idol obsession i dunno.

No, just another fucked up asshole who can't take no for an answer and had no life.

I hate these stories where people get killed for no reason/the dumbest and pettiest reasons, and the person who got it go off themselves because they know their life is over, and are complete cowards.

 

[Bedinsis]

About a quarter of their workforce. Meaning approximately 3000 left. I don't see why a company that barely makes any games should need 3000 employees.

Well they are making content for one very popular game

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Well they are making content for one very popular game

…Which Epic figures can easily be churned out by AI now and most of the player base won’t know or care enough about the difference. I’m kinda surprised they stopped at 1/4th.

 

[BrawlMan]

…Which Epic figures can easily be churned out by AI now and most of the player base won’t know or care enough about the difference. I’m kinda surprised they stopped at 1/4th.

They'll start caring when those price increases again with the V bucks. Most of the people playing these games are kids and their parents don't have the money all the time or rarely the time.

https://www.fortnite.com/news/fortnite-v-bucks-price-increase

Epic Games Is Laying Off Over 1,000 People After Fortnite's V-Bucks Price Increase

Epic Games is reportedly laying off over 1,000 people, just days after Fortnite's controversial V-Bucks price increase.

www.thegamer.com

 

[FakeSympathy]

Holy shit, this already looks better than Crimson Desert.

 

[Brokencontroller]

Holy shit, this already looks better than Crimson Desert.

Looks like another Black Myth game.

 

[Chimpzy]

About a quarter of their workforce. Meaning approximately 3000 left. I don't see why a company that barely makes any games should need 3000 employees.


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

Well they are making content for one very popular game

A game that has over time grown into more of a platform that, kinda like Roblox, is actually multiple games in one, several of which receive continuous support. Fortnite is a really big fucking game, content-wise And aside from games, Epic Games also develops Unreal Engine, which while mostly known as a graphics engine is now more of a full development suite, and which like half of the games industry uses to make games, and also has a lot of applications outside of games i.e. movie sfx. And while probably not that big of a segment, they also run their Epic Store.

Point is, Epic is not just Fortnite. It's a bigger company than that, that needs tons of ancillary staff outside of dev staff. Accountants, finance, legal, tech support, customer support, HR, etc. How much, I don't know, I don't have that kind of insight into their operational requirements. Maybe 4000 total is too much, maybe it isn't.

Also, Tim Sweeney is a massive tosser who really badly wants to be seen as a tech mogul like Zuck, Altman, Huang, Musk, etc, and will throw anyone and everyone under the bus to get there.

 

[Chimpzy]

Sony increases prices of entire Playstation line worldwide. Biggest increase yet. +100$/€

New Price Changes for PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player

Prices effective starting April 2, 2026.

blog.playstation.com

U.S.
PS5 – $649.99
PS5 Digital Edition – $599.99
PS5 Pro – $899.99

U.K.
PS5 – £569.99
PS5 Digital Edition – £519.99
PS5 Pro – £789.99

Europe
PS5 – €649.99
PS5 Digital Edition – €599.99
PS5 Pro – €899.99

Japan
PS5 – ¥97,980
PS5 Digital Edition – ¥89,980
PS5 Pro – ¥137,980

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Sony increases prices of entire Playstation line worldwide. Biggest increase yet. +100$/€

New Price Changes for PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player

Prices effective starting April 2, 2026.

blog.playstation.com

U.S.
PS5 – $649.99
PS5 Digital Edition – $599.99
PS5 Pro – $899.99

U.K.
PS5 – £569.99
PS5 Digital Edition – £519.99
PS5 Pro – £789.99

Europe
PS5 – €649.99
PS5 Digital Edition – €599.99
PS5 Pro – €899.99

Japan
PS5 – ¥97,980
PS5 Digital Edition – ¥89,980
PS5 Pro – ¥137,980

Perfect. I will finish putting my new PC together this weekend and revel in contentment.

 

[Chimpzy]

Perfect. I will finish putting my new PC together this weekend and revel in contentment.

Like every week something happens that makes me panic buying a bunch of electronics back in november/december last year look prudent in hindsight

Sony fanboys better learn to live with only one arm and one leg, since that's what PS6 will cost them.

 

[BrawlMan]

Like every week something happens that makes me panic buying a bunch of electronics back in november/december last year look prudent in hindsight

Sony fanboys better learn to live with only one arm and one leg, since that's what PS6 will cost them.

I'm not even thinking about PS6. Sure as hell not getting it at launch.