While other analysts have already attempted to digest the reasons behind Epic Games‘ decision to axe 1,000 jobs and its impact, we have another well-seasoned scholar who is weighing in with a more sobering take. Dr. Joost van Dreunen – you remember him as co-founder of SuperData and author of One Up – has put out an opinion piece about Epic’s current downturn that suggests the company’s fortunes are a signal of several problems that have gradually built up and are now beginning to take root.
In van Dreunen’s estimation, the disproportionate power that digital game store platforms hold and their focus on doing little more than extracting revenue, “unforced errors” specific to American economics such as imposed tariffs and fees to certain visa applications that contribute to both higher costs and overall brain drain, and the slow rise of game dev prominence in other regions that embrace “novel technologies” like generative AI, while (he argues) the west has “an industry culture that has decided purity matters more than pragmatism,” all have played a part in Epic’s downturn and the decline of the wider games industry.
Other factors are also accounted for in van Dreunen’s analysis, such as the lowered demand for games post-COVID, the continuously rising cost of gaming, the growing market share of gaming in other territories, and in the specific case of Fortnite, how the game’s “cultural moment is starting to fade.” All the while, US-based game makers are being “[forced] to adapt to a new world order.”
“The assumption that American game makers would indefinitely set the terms of global interactive entertainment—culturally, commercially, technologically—is no longer operative,” van Dreunen concludes. “The platforms they built on have turned against them. The audiences they cultivated are moving on. And the competitors they ignored are now eating their lunch.”
So yeah, clearly there’s plenty to disagree with in van Dreunen’s contentious analysis that conveniently confirms so many well-loved priors, but hey, that’s what the comments are for. Bonus points if you remember SuperData.
