League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced it will lay off 530 employees – about 11 percent of its total global workforce – and said it is making the decision as it refocuses on “fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future.” “to lead.”
In a statement to players on its website, Riot – which laid off 46 employees in January last year – wrote: “For most of our history, we have managed to avoid such days, but this decision is crucial going forward.” by Riot. This is not to appease shareholders or produce a quarterly profit number – it is a necessity.”
CEO Dylan Jadeja went into more detail about the business circumstances that led to today's layoffs in an email to Riot employees, also posted on the studio's website. “Since 2019,” he wrote, “we have made a number of large bets across the company with the goal of improving life as a player. We dove headfirst into creating new experiences and expanding our portfolio, and quickly grew into a multi-game, multi-experience company – we expanded our global footprint, changed our operating model, new Hired talent that matched our ambitions and ultimately doubled the size of Riot in just a few years.”
“Today we are a company that lacks a sharp enough focus,” he continued, “and simply put, we have too many things going on. Some of the significant investments we have made are not paying off as we expected.” Our costs have risen to the point where they are no longer sustainable, and we have left no room for experimentation or failure – which is crucial for a creative company like ours. All of this endangers the core of our business.
“Over the last few months we have tried to change course in many different ways. We asked leaders to compromise on the things their teams are working on. We have implemented hiring slowdowns and, in some cases, hiring freezes. We have… The focus is on controlling costs while strengthening our revenue growth. All of this was undoubtedly difficult for our teams.
“But as I spoke with executives at Riot, it became clear to all of us that these changes are not enough. We need to do more to focus our business and focus our efforts on the things that create the most value for players” – the things that are truly worth players’ time. Unfortunately, this requires us to make changes in the area in which we invest the most – our workforce.”
According to Riot, these “changes” will result in around 530 employees losing their jobs worldwide, “with the greatest impact.” [being] to teams outside of core development.” The company is also closing RiotForge – the initiative where it worked with smaller indie studios to develop a number of well-received titles based on its IP, including The Ruined King, Song of Nunu, and the upcoming Bandle Tale – and reducing the size of its Legends of Runeterra team.
According to Jadeja, the latter title “has not performed as well as we need it to, despite our best efforts”. He added that subsidizing development costs through Riot's other games was no longer a “viable option,” so development would refocus on Runterra's PvE game mode “Path of Champions” – reportedly the mode ” where the players spent most of their time”. The studio also says it will “prioritize” the League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift teams – “so they can focus on… content, features and updates” – and adopt strategies that are “tighter integrate”. eSports, music and entertainment with our games.”
Riot employees affected by today's layoffs will receive at least six months of severance pay, a cash bonus equal to 100 percent of individual annual performance bonuses for 2023, health benefits equal to the length of the severance payment, and $1,000 to cover expenses , which would normally accrue within Riot's Play Fund and Wellness Fund, equity, a laptop to help with job search if one is not available at home, career support, three-month access to the Rioter Assistance Program, visa support and continued use of their Riot -Email address for a “limited time”.
Today's job cuts at Riot follow a 2023 marked by large-scale layoffs across the gaming industry. The total number of affected workers is estimated at around 9,500. Unfortunately, the layoffs continued until 2024; Unity began the year by cutting 1,800 jobs, while companies like Behavior Interactive, Twitch, Discord and Gearbox-owned studio Lost Boys Interactive have all announced layoffs since then.