Riot Games Lays Off 11% of Workforce, Shuts Down Riot Forge to Refocus on Core Projects

wccftech.com:

Riot Games announced another big round of layoffs for the second year in a row. This time around, the studio mainly known for the League of Legends franchise plans to remove 11% of its large workforce. Around 530 employees will lose their jobs, although they will get benefits such as six months of severance pay at minimum, cash bonuses, and others.

The studio's goal is to refocus on its core games and projects: League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift, each of which has a 'vibrant future', according to Riot. The developer is also working on several upcoming games, starting with the fighting game Project L, which made 'great progress' and will be once again available to try at some point later this year. Other titles are in 'various stages of R&D'. This likely includes the upcoming League of Legends MMO, although Greg Street has since left Riot and founded his own studio to create another MMORPG. The studio still plans to take its time rather than rushing ahead and ship games that are not ready, so it may take a while before we get to see it. The second season of the Arcane Netflix show is on track for November 2024, though.

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There were also updates for Legends of Runeterra and the Riot Forge program. The digital collectible card game has struggled for a while, so its team size will be reduced and the focus will move towards the PvE mode. The Riot Forge program is being scrapped entirely after the release of the upcoming title Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story, the sixth made by external developers in the League of Legends franchise after Ruined King, Hextech Mayhem, Convergence, Song of Nunu, and The Mageseeker.

Again, Riot noted the need to concentrate on its internal projects. Even if these games were made by third parties, they still had to be overseen by a team from the studio.