Epic Games Announces Over 1,000 Job Cuts Amid Falling Fortnite Engagement

Epic Games will eliminate more than 1,000 jobs, a decision following a decline in engagement for "Fortnite." These cuts represent the latest layoffs within the video game industry, which has seen stalled growth due to current economic uncertainty.

Credit: EPIC GAMES

The organisation anticipates saving USD 500 million by reducing contracting and marketing expenditure, and by eliminating several open roles. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney stated in a note to employees that the company is "spending significantly more than we're making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded."

Blockbuster titles, including the first-person shooter "Fortnite," had previously shown resilience after the pandemic. They maintained performance even as a slowdown eroded demand for games beyond the largest franchises.

However, engagement for these titles is now also declining. This trend particularly affects live-service games, which depend on a continuous flow of expensive new content to retain their player base.

Sweeney acknowledged, "We've had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic," adding that "market conditions today are the most extreme" since the organisation's founding in 1991. Sweeney also clarified that "the layoffs aren't related to AI," addressing industry concerns about technology replacing developers. Epic had previously increased prices for Fortnite's in-game currency, citing rising operational costs.

This marks Epic's second significant round of job reductions in three years. Previously, in September 2023, the company eliminated approximately 830 jobs, representing about 16% of its workforce, with the aim of enhancing profitability. The exact percentage of staff affected by this new announcement was not immediately clear.

"Fortnite" previously led U.S. monthly active players across PlayStation and Xbox platforms. However, despite this reach, the average playtime experienced a sharp decrease, according to Senior Director Mat Piscatella of Circana.

Other gaming organisations have also implemented job cuts. Electronic Arts laid off hundreds of workers and cancelled a "Titanfall" game that was under development. Amazon's broader job reductions late last year also impacted its gaming division.

The industry faces additional challenges from rising memory chip prices. Surging demand from artificial intelligence data centres is absorbing supply, which drives up semiconductor costs and compels console manufacturers to increase their prices.

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• Epic Games plans to cut over 1,000 jobs due to declining engagement in "Fortnite" and wider economic uncertainty.

• The organisation aims to save USD 500 million through reduced spending and eliminating roles.

• Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney stated the company is "spending significantly more than we're making."

Source: REUTERS

Nothing Phone 4a Pro Review - The Overachieving Mid‑Range

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro arrives at a highly competitive moment in the mid-range smartphone market, stepping in as a compelling alternative to more expensive and less-equipped rival like the iPhone 17e. Priced at SGD$749, which is about SGD$100 more than its predecessor, the 3a Pro, it sits right above its more affordable sibling, the standard Nothing Phone 4a (SGD$599). In a bold strategic shift, there is no flagship Nothing Phone 4 this year; instead, the company has focused entirely on dominating the mid-range sector. But how does the 4a Pro hold up, and is it actually worth the slight premium of SGD$150 over the standard 4a?

Nothing Phone 4a Pro

The most striking difference between the 4a Pro and the standard 4a lies in their build materials. The Nothing Phone 4a Pro boasts an aircraft-grade aluminium unibody design that feels incredibly premium, reminiscent of classic metal smartphones. It features a transparent camera island that maintains the signature Nothing aesthetic, complete with visible screws and a red recording indicator light. In contrast, the standard 4a uses a mix of plastic and recycled materials with matte coloured sides.

Both phones sport the beloved Glyph lighting interface, but they differ significantly in execution. The 4a features a simplified 7-LED bar on the right side. The 4a Pro features a pixel dot-style display matrix with 137 individual lights. While it is lower resolution than the previous flagship Phone 3, it is brighter and highly customisable via the Dothub app for notifications, timers, and even third-party apps like Uber. For durability, the Pro is IP65 rated, offering slightly better water resistance than the IP64-rated 4a, though neither should be fully submerged. Unfortunately, neither device features wireless charging.

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro features a spacious 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with slim bezels. Nothing claims the Pro reaches a peak brightness of 5,000 nits compared to the 4a's 4,500 nits, though this difference is barely noticeable in everyday use.

Another heavily marketed feature of the Pro is its 144Hz maximum refresh rate, a step up from the 4a's 120Hz. However, in practical terms, the Pro rarely hits 144Hz, not because it can’t but because there is hardly any content that takes advantage of that. Thus, the visual experience between the two devices is nearly identical, offering crisp colours and smooth scrolling. Audio is handled by stereo speakers, though the placement of the speakers does make it a little off-balanced.

Under the hood, the Nothing Phone 4a Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor, offering a performance bump over the standard 4a's Snapdragon 7S Gen 4. Paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and faster UFS 3.1 storage, the Pro delivers a fluid, bug-free daily experience. It can handle most demanding games at high graphics settings and is stable at 60fps, whereas the standard 4a lacks a little.

Software is a massive selling point for both devices. Running Nothing OS 4.1 on top of Android 16, the interface is clean, minimal, and highly optimised. Nothing has introduced an "Intelligence Toolkit" for AI features, accessible via a dedicated essential key on the side of the phone. To prevent overly enthusiastic AI users from abusing it, they are capped at 300 analysis minutes per month. Both the 4a and 4a Pro are promised three years of OS updates and an impressive six years of security patches.

Nothing Phone 4a Pro and 4a (Pink)

Interestingly, both the 4a and the 4a Pro feature a very similar triple-camera arrangement, which is a massive advantage over the single or dual-lens setups of their competitors in the mid-range category. Both boast a 50MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom. The Pro specifically uses a Sony Lightyear 700C sensor for its main camera.

Nothing Phone 14a Pro 'Camera Island'

The cameras take sharp, pleasing photos, and having a dedicated periscope lens at this price point is a huge win for portrait and zoom photography. The primary difference between the two phones is purely digital: the Pro allows for a 140x digital zoom, while the 4a stops at 70x, a gimmicky addition that doesn't really yield usable photos at the extreme end. Video is capped at 4K 30fps for the main lens on both, with the ultra-wide and selfie cameras limited to 1080p.

Battery endurance is stellar on both models. Packed with large batteries slightly over 5,000 mAh, these phones easily last a full day of heavy use. When it's time to recharge, both support 50W wired charging, which can fill the battery in about an hour, though the charging brick must be purchased separately.

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is undeniably a fantastic, premium-feeling mid-range smartphone. It delivers an excellent futuristic, metal design, dependable battery life, and a clean software experience. It easily stands out from its mid-range competitor, and some might argue that it may be able to compete with the premium phones. However, when compared side-by-side with the standard Nothing Phone 4a, the Pro's upgrades of a slightly faster chip, a metal body, and a 144Hz display that rarely hits its peak, feel incremental. For most users, the standard 4a offers nearly the exact same highly-refined camera and software experience, which may be the more versatile choice.

OpenAI Halts Sora Development to Prioritise Enterprise Offerings

OpenAI is discontinuing its video generation tool Sora, the company said on Tuesday, in a surprise move by the ChatGPT maker, as it sharpens its focus on enterprise offerings ahead of a potential market debut later this year. The move involves winding down several Sora-related products.

Credit: UNSPLASH

"We're saying goodbye to Sora... we know this news is disappointing," the Sora team communicated in a post on social media platform X. Timelines for the app and application programming interface, along with details on preserving user work, will be shared at a later point.

OpenAI had published a blog post about Sora safety standards just a day before this announcement. Concurrently with Sora's discontinuation, OpenAI will also conclude its partnership with Disney, which was announced in Dec.

A spokesperson for Disney affirmed that the media giant respects "OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere." The three-year agreement had Disney set to invest USD 1 billion in OpenAI.

The partnership also permitted the artificial intelligence startup to utilise characters from Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel franchises in Sora. A team at Disney was working with OpenAI's Sora team last night when the entertainment giant learned its partner was "pivoting strategy," according to a source familiar with the matter.

OpenAI first unveiled Sora in early 2024, astounding the world with software capable of generating feature film-like quality videos based on text prompts. This launch spurred AI companies across the U.S. and China to accelerate the release of their own AI video generation models.

The company launched the standalone Sora app in Sept. 2025, allowing users to create and share AI videos. These videos could be spun from copyrighted content and shared to social media-like streams. The Wall Street Journal first reported Sora's discontinuation earlier on Tuesday.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman informed staff that the company would discontinue products that rely on its video models. Beyond the consumer application, OpenAI is also ending a version of Sora for developers.

The report further noted that video functionality would not be supported within ChatGPT either. This strategic shift arises as OpenAI faces intensifying pressure to ramp up its enterprise and coding product offerings.

Competition from rival AI startups and established technology giants is intensifying. Anthropic's concentration on training its models for coding has enabled its Claude Code product to achieve significant traction among developers, providing an advantage over competitors like OpenAI in the enterprise AI market.

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• OpenAI is discontinuing its Sora video generation tool.

• The company is shifting its strategic focus to enterprise offerings and products.

• The discontinuation encompasses the standalone Sora app, a developer version, and video functionality within ChatGPT.

Source: REUTERS