Fortnite will open immediate self-service refunds for D4vd cosmetics on Tuesday, April 28, while Epic says support refunds are already available now. The company has not said whether the singer's items will be fully removed from the game.
A heavily upvoted r/Games post amplified Insider Gaming's report that one laid-off Epic employee battling terminal brain cancer lost employer-provided life insurance. Tim Sweeney later said Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the issue.
A March 25, 2026 GameSpot report amplified by r/Games says Epic Games' 1,000-person layoff round included Vitaliy Naymushin, the artist behind Jonesy and several foundational Fortnite characters, underscoring how deeply the cuts reach into the live-service giant's original creative team.
In a March 24 memo, Epic Games said it is laying off over 1,000 employees and pairing the cuts with more than $500 million in savings. The company blamed a 2025 decline in Fortnite engagement, weaker industry spending, and the long road back to mobile.
Epic says Fortnite Save the World will become free-to-play on April 16, 2026 across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Cloud, and Nintendo Switch 2, with pre-registration rewards for newcomers, April 16 thank-you rewards for current players, and unchanged V-Bucks rules for Founders.