A family man with an incurable brain tumor is among the 1,000 Epic employees who were recently laid off and is losing his health insurance as a result. The Epic boss is now trying to smooth things over.
Last week, it was announced that Epic has laid off around 1,000 employees due to declining sales of Fortnite. The company wants to save on personnel costs as a result. Among those made redundant were numerous industry veterans and well-known Fortnite developers who have shaped the game for years, including Evan Kinney and Paige Dugre.
The situation within the community is tense in light of the wave of redundancies. Many players are of the opinion that Epic has laid off its best staff and see the future of Fortnite and other in-house Epic brands in the dark. And these are just the opinions from the outside- the consequences for the affected employees and their families have not yet been considered.
Family-father-with-cancer-loses-his-insurance
The case of Mike Prinke currently demonstrates just how serious these consequences can be. The developer worked as a technical writer at Epic for a total of seven years before he was made redundant last week along with hundreds of other employees.
With the dismissalin the USA, health insurance through the employer often also ends. And that is a big problem for Prinke’s family. His father suffers from an incurable brain tumor that costs a lot of money to treat. He cannot take out new health insurance without a secure income and with his existing medical problems.
Prinke’s wife has made this predicament publicIn a Facebook postJenni Griffin explains that the termination also means losing their life insurance. The family now has no idea how to pay the hospital bills or Mike Prinke’s inevitable funeral:
[…] Now that I have to face the fact of losing my husband … I also have to face the question of what kind of funeral I can afford. How I’m going to make sure we keep a roof over our heads. How I will protect our son and the life we have built together. What will become of our dogs.
I firmly believe that those who made this decision would not have intended this outcome if they had understood all the human implications.
Mike is not just a number. He is a father. A husband. A person who is loved with all his heart.
– Jenni Griffin (wife)
Criticism of Epic boss Tim Sweeney
After the allegations came to light, Epic and its controversial boss Tim Sweeney were once again harshly criticized online. Sweeney has already been in the crossfire of the community for several days due to what were perceived as heartless comments about the redundancies.
Sweeney had said, among other things, that the redundancies would free up a lot of good staff for the job market. You can read more about this in the link box below. OnTwitterfor example, one user asked the Epic CEO whether he was now happy to have fired a terminally ill man.
ARE YOU HAPPY NOW @TimSweeneyEpic ? pic.twitter.com/QpzkCPCewV
– Backers | Fortnite News (@BackersGamesF) March 28, 2026
As the issue inevitably meant bad PR, Sweeney tried to smooth things over. In response to the tweet, the CEO said that Epic was already in contact with the family concerned and wanted to resolve the insurance issue. At the same time, Prinke’s illness had not played a role in the decision to dismiss him.
Medical information is subject to strict confidentiality and played no role in this dismissal decision. We are sorry that we did not recognize this extremely painful situation and act accordingly in advance.
– Tim Sweeney (Epic CEO)
