Unity reportedly considering cap on hugely controversial per-install fees

Naughty Dog, the renowned Santa Monica-based game development studio owned by Sony, is cutting jobs, albeit not internally. The news comes from a fresh Kotaku report. Citing anonymous sources, it reveals that at least 25 contract workers were cut last week, mostly in the quality assurance department (though art and production teams were also reportedly affected in some capacity). The report also says the affected employees received pressure not to disclose the news. They won't get any severance, either. Their contracts expire at the end of this month, and they are expected to keep working until then.

Epic Games has said Mediatonic’s work on Fall Guys remains a “company priority” following reports that the UK studio had been hit hard by layoffs.

Epic Games recently laid off almost 900 employees from its studios, seemingly including Mediatonic, developer of Fall Guys. It started with Dextero reporting that the team had been laid off, indicating its closure. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier later reported that while the studio was hit “very hard” by the layoffs, it hasn’t been closed.

Update – September 29, 1: 20 AM: In response to the recent wave of layoffs at Mediatonic, the renowned studio behind the hit game Fall Guys and owned by Epic Games, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier clarified that while the studio has indeed faced significant staff reductions, rumors suggesting the complete closure of the studio are unfounded. While the layoffs are undoubtedly a challenging development, Mediatonic remains operational.

Epic Games announced today that it is laying off 16% of its staff, or 830 people. It’s also divesting recent purchase Bandcamp and spinning out SuperAwesome, which will result in 250 more people leaving the company. Allegedly these layoffs are fueled by an excess of spending and Fortnite’s growth slowing down. Bandcamp joins Songtradr, while SuperAwesome will be its own company headed by current CEO Kate O’Loughlin.

Epic Games is reportedly laying off around 16% of its workforce.

Over the past few years, Epic Games has been one of the biggest success stories in the industry. The massive popularity of Fortnite changed the entire gaming landscape, establishing the blueprint for a successful “live service” title. The profitability of Fortnite allowed Epic to do things like launch the Epic Games Store with better profit sharing for publishers, push a lot of cutting-edge new technology with Unreal Engine 5, and more. Unfortunately, it seems Epic’s run of unfettered success may have hit a speed bump.

There’s a really interesting new rumor about the next The Last of Us game, that takes aim at a report from no less than Jason Schreier.

Ever since Unity first announced its plans for a new runtime install fee, it’s been trying to put flex tape over it with clarifications and responses. Now, it looks like there may be some backpedaling on the horizon. To some extent, at least.

Unity is preparing to announce major changes to its controversial Runtime Fee install policy. Announced last week, it asked all developers who reached specific thresholds to pay a fee for the first game installation on any single device.

Update: Polygon reports that a «reporting party» told responding San Francisco police «an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” According to the police, the employee who allegedly made the threats works in an office outside of California.

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.