The bleeding of big names does not stop at Epic Games. Sergiy Galyonkinone of the masterminds behind Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, announced his departure from the company. The news came just days after the dismissal of 830 employees, and adds to the recent departure of Donald Mustard, one of those responsible for the success of the popular battle royale.
Galyonkin, who held the role of director of publishing strategies at Epic Games, announced his departure via a statement on X (Twitter). The aforementioned does not provide details of the determination, so it is unknown if there is any direct relationship with last week’s personnel cuts.
However, the executive does mention that his departure is because he is no longer a good option for the company’s future. “Epic Games is on its way to converting from a game developer, graphics engine creator and publisher, to an Epic 5.0 platform. I’m not the right person for this version of Epicwhich requires other types of individuals,” said Sergiy Galyonkin.
Certainly, the explanation of the now former director of the studio after Fortnite and Unreal Engine is far from clarifying. For now, he indicated that his intention is continue linked to the video game industryalthough it is not yet known if he has already defined his next destination.
Epic Games loses another of its most important executives
With his departure, Sergiy Galyonkin closes a journey of almost 8 years as part of Epic Games. The executive joined Tim Sweeney’s studio in February 2016 and was part of the team that introduced Fortnite and established its successful monetization model. But his contributions were not limited to the popular game, but also He was a crucial piece in the development and launch of the Epic Games Store.
In fact, Galyonkin came to the company with significant knowledge of how video game distribution platforms work, since he was the creator of Steam Spy. This website, which is still active, appeared on the scene in 2015 in order to offer automated statistics on the operation of Steam, including sales figures and average play times for each title, among others.
In his farewell message, the now former director of publishing strategies at Epic Games, rescued the evolution of both Fortnite as from the Epic Games Store. “We showed that the free-to-play, pay-to-win model can work at scale. We challenge the status quo in game distribution with an 88/12 revenue split“he asserted.
Many changes in a short time
It will be interesting to see how Epic Games’ strategy continues after losing two of its most important figures, Donald Mustard and Sergiy Galyonkin, in less than a month. The company is in the eye of the storm after the recent layoff of more than 800 employees, in addition to the sale of Bandcamp and the independence of a part of SuperAwesome.
Tim Sweeney, CEO of the firm, argued that they were spending more money than they received and that it was necessary to make unfriendly decisions to find financial balance. Hours after the personnel cuts and divestment measures were announced, the price increase for V-Bucks was announced. Fortnite in several countries, including Spain.