After years of Fortnite-fueled relative stability, it seems a shakeup has come to Epic Games. Last week, we heard Epic was laying off nearly 900 employees, with company CEO Tim Sweeny admitting the company has been “spending way more money than we earn” for some time now. It seems whatever transition Epic Games is going through may affect one of the most divisive parts of their business – the Epic Games Store – as today Sergiy Galyonkin announced he was leaving the company.
Galyonkin founded Steam Spy and later joined Epic as their director of publishing, a position that meant he oversaw the launch and operation of the Epic Games Store. While Galyonkin was instrumental in building “Epic 4.0,” he believes he’s “not a good fit” for the future “Epic 5.0” vision of the company…
“Today is officially my last day at Epic Games. These eight years have been some of the most exciting in my career, and I am deeply grateful to my former Epic Games colleagues and Tim Sweeney for allowing me to help build Epic 4.0. I am also immensely thankful for the generous $144M donation Epic Games sent to various charities to help Ukraine in the early days of the Russian invasion of 2022. At that time, Epic Games was ahead of some G7 countries in providing support. It means the world to me, and while I wasn't always polite during those discussions, I will forever be grateful.
We launched Fortnite, which later became one of those self-reinforcing cultural phenomena I wrote about just a year prior. We proved that free-to-play without pay-to-win can work at scale. We challenged the status quo in game distribution with the 88/12 revenue share. Now, Epic Games is on its way to transforming from a game developer, engine creator, and publisher into a platform - Epic 5.0. I am not a good fit for this new version of Epic -- it requires people of a different kind.
I plan to remain in the gaming industry. I also hope to be more vocal now that I don't have to worry about the PR department knocking on my DMs. Again, thank you to everyone I worked with at Epic Games - it was an incredible journey, and I will always cherish it.”
What do you think this departure might mean for the future of the Epic Games Store? Where do you see “Epic 5.0” going in general?
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