Fortnite Rocket Racing and more are being sunsetted amidst layoffs
As Epic Games cuts over 1,000 jobs, the Unreal Engine maker is also sunsetting multiple Fortnite modes, including Rocket Racing, while one of its subsidiaries is pulling downloads for two of its games later this year.
Both announcements took place on social media yesterday. The first comes via the Fortnite Status account: "We've built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base."
The modes affected are Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage, which will all be shut down throughout the course of the year.
Ballistic, a competitive 5v5 tactical mode in first person, will be removed from Fortnite on April 16. Festival Battle Stage, the PVP mode of the rhythm game mode Fortnite Festival, is following suit on the same day.
Then, Rocket Racing will be shut down on October 2026. Epic will be adding car physics, hazards, and track-building tools in April for people who are interested in making user-generated content for it before that time.
It's worth remembering that Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival—along with Lego Fortnite—were all part of a big push for the live service game at the end of 2023. The first two are significant in the context of this week's layoffs, as Epic acquired Rocket League maker Psyonix in 2019 and rhythm game veteran Harmonix in 2021. Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival were the natural result of these acquisitions, respectively.
Now, it's unclear how many developers of these studios, as well as others that Epic has acquired, were affected by the recent layoffs. Yesterday, when approached for comment, an Epic representative said that the teams at Harmonix and Fall Guys dev Mediatonic have been integrated into the Epic development team for a while.
"They work on a range of games and experiences, and the Harmonix team continues to work on music features in Fortnite like Festival Main Stage and Festival Jam Stage. Music remains a major part of Fortnite."
Yesterday's news also has ramifications for the Horizon Chase franchise. In 2023, Epic bought developer Aquiris to established Epic Games Brasil, which was tasked with supporting Fortnite.
Amidst the layoffs announcement, the official Horizon Chase account said the original version of Horizon Chase and Horizon Chase Turbo will no longer be available to download starting on June 1st. Horizon Chase 2, released in September 2023, remains available.
As for what's next for Fortnite, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said the company will now strive to bolster the live service game with seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events while accelerating developer tools "with greater stability and capability" as it works to pivot from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6.
"This isn't our first time being here," reads a statement published yesterday. "Epic survived upheavals in 1990's with the move from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; in the 2000's building console games with Gears of War; and in 2012 moving to online gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Each time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed leadership position," he continued.
"Market conditions today are the most extreme we've seen since those early days, with massive upheaval in the industry accompanied by massive opportunity for the companies that come out as winners on the other side. That's what we're aiming to do for our players, and we aim to bring other like-minded developers in the industry along on the journey to build an increasingly open and vibrant future of entertainment together."
