Techcrunch blog!: In cost-cutting move, Epic Games lays off approximately 870 workers

Thursday, September 28, 2023

In today's top story, Fortnite maker Epic Games said it is laying off about 870 people, or 16% of its workforce. Learn more. Meanwhile, the company asks the Supreme Court to weigh in on its beef with Apple. Not to be outdone, Apple also asked the Supreme Court to reconsider one of its rulings in favor of Epic.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is here, and it looks yummier than ever. Get your fork ready.

And Reddit is making some changes, chiefly to remove the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform. Find out what this means.

Image Credits: Epic

More top reads

Ads are safe for now: Amazon wins interim stay on delivering a public ads archive in early challenge to the EU's Digital Services Act. Read more. Meanwhile, the company launches its Bedrock generative AI service in general availability and gives CodeWhisperer an enterprise tier.

Your photos, but better: Adobe launches Photoshop's web version with Firefly-powered AI tools. Go ahead, play around.

AI boom: What products and services are poised to benefit from this generative AI boom we keep reading about? Well, for starters, Alex Wilhelm says it could make the OS cool again. (TC+)

Speaking of AI: Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd shares how AI will "supercharge" love and relationships. The power of love . . . and technology.

In the nick of time: Google rushes to patch a zero-day vulnerability exploited by some commercial spyware vendor. Read more.

Not that much of a stretch: Fitbit brings Pixel Watch features to the Charge 6. Learn more.

Time to get social: Artifact co-founder Mike Krieger says there's a "flavor" of Twitter in the app’s latest release. Here's why.

For the founders: African VC firm Enza Capital launches founder partner program as it closes $58 million across funds. Read on.

More for your Thursday:

Worldcoin doubles down on emerging markets amid wider criticism (TC+)

Blend uses generative AI to give you a personalized clothing guide

Zapier launches Canvas, an AI-powered flowchart tool

Mercury Fund closes largest fund to invest in SaaS startups between the coasts

Google patches zero-day exploited by commercial spyware vendor

Image Credits: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket / Getty Images

Creating strategic defensibility as an early-stage startup

In the first column of a four-part series, Startup Battlefield editor and director of community Neesha Tambe hosted a master class on strategic defensibility with Mike Ghaffary, general partner at Canvas Ventures.

"In this session, Ghaffary outlined the important components of startup defensibility, the key strategic advantage buckets, and what startups can do to stay competitive as they build and scale," she writes.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription.

Creating strategic defensibility as an early-stage startup image

On the pods

For this week's episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Tiago Sada, head of product for Tools for Humanity and core contributor to Worldcoin, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco.

Tools for Humanity, which is the team building Worldcoin, raised $115 million in a Series C round back in May with investors like Blockchain Capital, a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global. In March 2022, Worldcoin raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation. We dive into why someone would scan their eyes, as well as alternate options and privacy concerns some skeptics have about the project. Listen here.