Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Last month it was announced that Fortnite creator Epic Games would be laying off nearly 900 employees, representing 16 percent of its total staff. These layoffs included members of the Fortnite team, as well as other departments within the company. Epic Games also announced that it would be selling Bandcamp, the music distribution platform that it just acquired last year. However, Bandcamp isn’t leaving the Epic Games empire unscathed, as the company is laying off half of Bandcamp staff prior to the sale.
The news of layoffs at Bandcamp came from employees themselves on social media. JJ Skolnik shared that not only had they been laid off from Bandcamp, but half of the entire company had been laid off as well. They also revealed that it’s been a strange couple of weeks since the previous Epic Games layoffs, as they were in a “limbo” where they weren’t sure whether or not they’d be able to keep their job. Skolnik also confirms that only three employees remain on Bandcamp’s writing team.
Epic Games acquired Bandcamp just last year, only to purge half of its employees and sell it to Songtradr a year later. Having gone through the unfortunate experience, Bandcamp workers are unionizing to provide better rights for themselves and future employees moving forward. The group says that it has gathered 10,000 signatures demanding that Songrtradr recognize the union.
With half of Bandcamp’s employees unexpectedly losing their jobs, Shacknews wishes them the best moving forward. It’s unfortunately just the latest round of mass layoffs in the tech space this year. We’ll continue to follow the latest developments at Epic Games and Bandcamp.