Epic Games gives employees two weeks off work and I’ve probably messed this headline up

Epic Game’s Fortnite is probably the biggest game on the planet right now, but the game’s explosive Battle Royale growth didn’t come without a human cost. The game’s breakneck pace of development and the content need to evolve and keep its seasonal content exciting has meant that its developers have had to endure gruelling crunch.

“I work an average 70 hours a week,” said one employee. “There’s probably at least 50 or even 100 other people at Epic working those hours. I know people who pull 100-hour weeks. The company gives us unlimited time off, but it’s almost impossible to take the time. If I take time off, the workload falls on other people, and no one wants to be that guy.”

Now, though the new Season is forging ahead, Epic has closed up shop for the next two weeks, giving every employee a bit of well-deserved time off. Yes, that’s a fortnight.

“Following this week, the Epic office will be closed between June 24 – July 8,” the company said in a post last week that I missed because I seldom read Fortnite blog updates. “During that time, we will not have any official Fortnite Competitive Tournaments running. When we come back, our next prized tournament will be a Trios tournament on July 13th & 14th.”

That’s a nice thing to do, as long as it doesn’t mean that employees are straight back into more brutal crunch the second they return. Given Fortnite’s constant need for updates, that’s unfortunately the likeliest scenario. Still, it seems employees do at least get two batches of two-week-long breaks.

“Epic shuts the studio down for 2 weeks in the summer and two in the winter,” said Epic Games lead animator Jay Hosfelt on Twitter. “We also get vacation on top of it. I don’t say this to brag, but to vocally applaud a company that sincerely cares for its employees.”

Last Updated: June 25, 2019