Epic laid off cancer patient who then lost their life insurance, CEO Tim Sweeney confirms Epic will make it right

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney will step in and help a distinctly tragic situation affecting a laid off employee who has terminal brain cancer and no life insurance after the company eliminated his role at the group.

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Epic Games recently laid off 1,000 workers, earning the ire from industry developers and gamers alike. One of the people affected by the recent layoffs was Mike Prinke, a terminal cancer patient whose life insurance policy was in dangerous jeopardy. Jenni Griffin, Mike's wife, shared the tragic story on Facebook, outlining the stress and fear that their family now faces as a result of the layoff.

"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 said.

Word was passed to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney via Twitter, and Sweeney responded, promising that Epic would make things right.

"Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them. 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."

The post that informed (and criticized) Sweeney has been viewed by 1.9 million people on Twitter, and Griffin's story spread across the web, with multiple news sites reporting on it. Griffin's post also got the attention of dozens of people, with scores of users leaving comments and over 160 shares on the platform.

This quick response could help turn around some of the reputational harm that Epic Games has suffered over recent weeks. The company had celebrated earlier in the year with its landmark settlement with Google that enabled Epic to secure more favorable revenue splits, and then days later, Epic announced that it would increase the price of Fortnite's V-bucks microtransaction currency.

Epic remains one of the top-earners of the industry insofar as revenue, having created a game that bridges across all platforms while also hosting its own PC storefront/launcher combo. Epic has also expanded onto mobile, and Fortnite itself has earned over $20 billion in revenue from 2018 through 2023.