Epic CEO Responds After Layoff Leaves Terminally Ill Worker Without Insurance

by on March 30, 2026

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the company will resolve an insurance issue involving a former employee with terminal brain cancer who lost life insurance coverage after the company’s March 26 layoffs.

The former employee, Mike Prinke, had worked at Epic Games for nearly seven years as a programmer and technical writer and is currently undergoing treatment for terminal brain cancer.

His job ended when Epic dismissed more than 1,000 employees on March 26 during a companywide reduction in staff. The company, known for the global hit game Fortnite, said the layoffs were tied to financial pressures.

In a letter sent to employees alongside the layoffs, Sweeney said Epic had experienced declining engagement in Fortnite beginning in 2025, which affected revenue.

“Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season,” Sweeney wrote in the letter. “We’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”

The letter said affected employees would receive severance of at least four months of base pay and six months of Epic-paid healthcare coverage in the United States. Life insurance was not listed among the benefits in the severance package and is typically handled as a separate benefit.

For Prinke’s family, the absence of life insurance created an immediate problem.

His wife, Jenni Griffin, described the situation in a Facebook post that spread widely online.

“My husband, Mike was recently laid off along with over a thousand others at Epic Games. What makes this different for our family is that Mike is currently fighting terminal brain cancer,” Griffin wrote.

She said the job loss carried consequences beyond income.

“Because of the layoff, we didn’t just lose income—we lost his life insurance. And because his condition is now considered a pre-existing condition, he can’t get new coverage.”

Griffin wrote that the situation left her confronting financial concerns while her husband continues treatment.

“So now, as I face the reality of losing my husband… I’m also facing the reality of what type of funeral/burial I can afford,” she wrote. “How I will keep a roof over our heads. How I will protect our son and the life we built together. What will happen to our dogs.”

Her message also addressed Epic Games management.

“Mike is not just a number. He is a father. A husband. A person deeply loved.”

Griffin said in an interview with Kotaku that her husband’s condition was known inside the company because he frequently attended medical appointments. Those visits included specialized treatments designed to prevent memory loss so he could continue performing his work at a high level.

Griffin also wrote that continuing the life insurance policy privately could cost thousands of dollars each month, a cost the family could not afford without stable employment.

The online appeal drew thousands of views and prompted criticism directed at Epic Games leadership. Supporters encouraged Griffin to contact the company to resolve the issue and suggested launching a fundraiser.

The layoffs also affected other long-time employees connected to Fortnite. Among them were Johnny Cash, who worked on the game’s battle pass and quest systems, and Vitaliy Naymushin, the artist responsible for the Fortnite character Jonesy.

After the criticism spread online, Sweeney addressed the situation publicly on March 29 in a post on X after a Fortnite news account tagged him in a viral message asking, “ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?”

“Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them,” Sweeney wrote. “There is high confidentiality around medical information and it was not a factor in this layoff decision. Sorry to everyone for not recognizing this terribly painful situation and handling it in advance.”