Riot Games, a California-headquartered video game developer credited with hits like League of Legends and Valorant, has decided to lay off 11% of its worldwide workforce, affecting 530 staff members.
On Monday night, January 22, the company stated: "We are refocusing on fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future."
Impending Layoff
More than 9,000 people lost their jobs in the video gaming business last year, and Riot Games is just the latest to join the wave of layoffs in 2024, according to The Verge.
This announcement comes just after a poll at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) found that 56% of attendees were worried that their studios would have to axe employees as a consequence of the post-pandemic course correction.
In a website update, Riot Games CEO Dylan Jadeja stated, "Some of the significant investments we've made aren't paying off the way we expected them to."
He specifically mentioned the company's 10th-anniversary expansions in 2019, which expanded the League of Legends world into new games and other entertainment industries.
Staff whose roles are affected or might be affected will be notified by appropriate business leaders via email or phone within the next 48 hours. They will be provided severance compensation for at least six months, with more for longer-serving staff and other perks.
Affected Operations
Riot asserts that its primary focus is on its flagship live games, including League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift, along with the associated competitions and events.
Additionally, the second season of its Arcane TV series for Netflix is scheduled to release in November, and the still-in-development Project L 2D fighting game using League characters is reportedly making significant progress.
The adjustments will have an immediate impact on many projects, one of which being Legends of Runeterra, a free-to-play card game that Jadeja said has not done well. With the team trimmed down, the firm plans to devote more resources to the PvE mode.
In addition to games related to League of Legends, Riot has another goal in their current game portfolio--the Riot Forge publishing label--which was established in 2019 to collaborate with smaller developers.
Once Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is released, Riot Forge will cease operations. They have produced six products so far, including the exclusive Hextech Mayhem for Netflix mobile.
"We have to do more to focus our business and center our efforts on the things that drive the most player value - the things that are truly worth players' time," Jadeja said, clarifying that the cutbacks are not meant to appease investors, but rather to address this underlying issue.
