Riot Games Lays Off 530 Employees, Reduces Portfolio, With Riot Forge Shut Down
mmorpg.comThe new year continues to be a difficult one for the games industry, with Riot Games announcing layoffs affecting about 11% of their global workforce, or around 530 people. The company is also trimming its portfolio, shutting down Riot Forge, pulling back on some other projects, and recentering on its four core live titles: League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, and Wild Rift.
As with many other recent layoff announcements, too much ambition and putting that into starting too many projects was blamed for this round of cuts. “Over the past few years, as Riot more than doubled in headcount, we spread our efforts across more and more projects without sharp enough razors to decide what players needed most,” CEO Dylan Jadeja and CPO Marc Merrill said in the announcement. Although, they insist that most of the cuts are “outside of core development”.
That doesn’t soften the blow if you’re one of the employees who had been notified of a job loss, though the company is offering severance packages that include at least six months of salary and a performance bonus payout, continued healthcare where originally offered, and additional benefits, including a laptop if their work computer is their only other option, and job placement and visa assistance.
As for the company’s projects, Riot Forge, which allowed indie developers to partner with Riot on projects inspired by their offerings. Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story, which is out next month, will be the collaboration’s final release. Legends of runeterra is also getting changes, with cuts to the team and a complete refocus on the PvE side, with PAth of Champions being where they’ll continue.
The Riot MMO wasn't specifically addressed, though the second season of the Arcane animated series will release in November, and they still have “a number of projects cooking in various stages of R&D”.
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