Epic to ‘Solve’ Life Insurance After Terminally Ill Employee Was Laid Off

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A sad story emerged this weekend about an Epic employee who lost their job as part of a recent large layoff.

If you didn’t hear, Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, recently laid off over 1,000 employees. The company explained this was a difficult but essential move to get their spending under control and become profitable.

Sadly, the recent layoffs included some particularly difficult news. Mike Prinke, a programmer who lost his job, is battling terminal brain cancer.

So, my wife Jenni posted on Facebook about everything that’s been going on, and how it’s affecting us as a family. It’s been rough, and she wanted to share what we’re going through.

I’m absolutely heartbroken right now. My husband, Mike, recently lost his job at Epic Games – it was a huge layoff, affecting over a thousand people. But this isn’t just about losing income for us, it’s so much more. Mike is battling terminal brain cancer, and unfortunately, the layoff meant we lost his life insurance. Now, because of his illness, he’s unable to qualify for any new insurance coverage. It’s just a devastating blow on top of everything else we’re already going through.

After a message about his situation became popular on X (formerly Twitter) this weekend, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has pledged to help Mike and his family get the assistance they require.

He said:

Epic is directly supporting the family and will handle their insurance claims. We want to assure everyone that medical information played no role in the decision to let them go, and we maintain strict confidentiality regarding personal health details. We apologize for not anticipating this difficult situation and addressing it sooner.

I really hope Sweeney and his team can sort things out, but it’s just awful that Mike and his family are going through this. It’s so upsetting that it even got to this point.

Griffin told Kotaku that his health condition wasn’t a secret – the company and all his colleagues were already aware of it.

Obviously, we just want to share our best wishes with Mike and his family at this time.

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2026-03-30 02:37