In 2021, Epic Games acquired Mediatonic, the development studio behind the hit cartoony battle royale game Fall Guys. It seemed like a perfect partnership for both companies. Now, it appears Mediatonic has been hit especially hard by the mass layoffs announced on Thursday by Epic Games.
Epic revealed it would let go of 16 percent of its total workforce, which was estimated to be around 830 employees. Eurogamer reports that the "scale of the cuts is huge" at UK-based Mediatonic. It added that "the picture remains unclear just how many people will remain."
Almost all divisions at the developer have been hit by these layoffs. One of the people affected, Ed Fear, posted an image on his X (formerly Twitter) site that showed the letters on the Mediatonic logo at its offices had been rearranged to now show "decimation".
The Mediatonic logo right now: pic.twitter.com/LHqbc62LL3
— Ed Fear (@edfear) September 28, 2023
However, the studio will remain open, and according to a statement from an Epic Games spokesperson, "Mediatonic"s work on Fall Guys continues to be a company priority."
This week"s event at the developer is a far cry compared to when Mediatonic was bought by Epic Games in 2021. Before then, Fall Guys was being published by Devolver Digital and had become an unexpected hit. It launched in August 2020 on PC via Steam and the PlayStation 4. By November, it had sold 10 million copies just on Steam.
After Mediatonic was bought by Epic, it was decided to turn Fall Guys into a free-to-play title, which happened in 2022. The game also expanded to Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms. However, Epic removed the game from Steam in favor of its own Epic Games Store.
While Epic claims that Fall Guys is a priority, it remains to be seen if the cuts at Mediatonic will affect future development of the game going forward.