{"id":571432,"date":"2026-03-30T20:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/571432\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:29:08","slug":"ceo-of-epic-games-apologizes-after-laying-off-employee-with-terminal-brain-cancer-fortnite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/571432\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO of Epic Games apologizes after laying off employee with terminal brain cancer | Fortnite"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chief of the company that created Fortnite, a popular online game, has issued an apology following backlash<\/a> after recent mass layoffs<\/a> cost an employee with terminal brain cancer his job \u2013 and his life insurance.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Tim Sweeney, the Epic Games<\/a> chief executive, apologized after Jenni Griffin, the wife of Mike Prinke, a laid-off employee, revealed on social media that the loss of her husband\u2019s job also meant he was losing his life insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEpic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them,\u201d Sweeney said in an X post in response to Griffin. \u201cThere is high confidentiality around medical information, and it was not a factor in this layoff decision. Sorry to everyone for not recognizing this terribly painful situation and handling it in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweeney\u2019s Epic Games has annual profits of $4bn. Its Fortnite<\/a> is the world\u2019s fourth-most-played PC game.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post<\/a>, Griffin wrote: \u201cI never imagined I would be writing something like this. My husband, Mike, was recently laid off along with over a thousand others at Epic Games. What makes this different for our family is that Mike is currently fighting terminal brain cancer. Because of the layoff, we didn\u2019t just lose income \u2013 we lost his life insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin added: \u201cAnd because his condition is now considered a pre-existing condition, he can\u2019t get new coverage. So now, as I face the reality of losing my husband \u2026 I\u2019m also facing the reality of what type of funeral\/burial I can afford \u2026 I truly believe that if the people who made this decision understood the full human impact, they would not have intended this outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cI\u2019m sharing this in the hope that it reaches the right people. If you work at or know someone connected to Mike\u2019s former employer, please help this story reach them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accompanying Griffin\u2019s statement was a picture of Prinke\u2019s brain scan, which was captioned: \u201cThere are dozens of tumors actively growing, but this one is the most terrifying as it is aggressively taking over space in the front lobe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her post quickly went viral and prompted Sweeney to respond<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Griffin later confirmed <\/a>that Epic Games had reached out, writing on Facebook on Sunday: \u201cWe are in talks now with the appropriate people! Will update soon, likely by Tuesday. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epic Games announced<\/a> the mass layoffs on 24 March. Sweeney justified the cuts by saying: \u201cThe downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we\u2019re spending significantly more than we\u2019re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over [$500m] of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that affected employees would receive a severance package, including at least four months of base pay, along with other aspects tied to tenure at the company.<\/p>\n

In addition, Sweeney said Epic would extend paid healthcare coverage. The company planned for laid-off US employees to receive six months of coverage, along with accelerated stock options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief of the company that created Fortnite, a popular online game, has issued an apology following backlash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-571432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}