The studio behind popular games such as ‘League of Legends’ and ‘VALORANT’ announced an 11% reduction in its global workforce today (23 Jan), which will impact around 530 staff. Riot Games is offering a generous severance package, including a minimum of six months’ salary, bonus entitlement, and job support.
In a message announcing the layoffs, the studio said its expansion since 2019 has led to a lack of focus as well as unsustainable costs.
Despite cost-cutting measures in the past several months, costs have remained unsustainable, forcing the studio into layoffs.
Teams outside of core development are the ones most affected.
Riot released both a public statement as well as an email to staff announcing the layoffs this morning (23 Jan).
The layoffs will mostly affect teams outside of core development. In light of the news, the company apologised to affected employees and thanked them for their contributions.
In the public statement, Riot Games said it is “changing some of the bets it has made and shifting how it works across the company to create more value for players and a more sustainable future.”
It noted that since 2019, the number of employees has doubled in size. Now, the company has to scale back.
“Some of the significant investments we’ve made aren’t paying off the way we expected them to,” Riot Games CEO Dylan Jadeja said in an email to staff.
“Our costs have grown to the point where they’re unsustainable, and we’ve left ourselves with no room for experimentation or failure – which is vital to a creative company like ours. All of this puts the core of our business at risk.”
Despite trying tradeoffs and cost-cutting measures over the past several months, costs are still at an unsustainable level for Riot.
“Unfortunately, this involves making changes in the area where we invest the most — our headcount.”
For the staff who were laid off, the company has offered a comprehensive severance package and outplacement support, as well as access to mental health resources and counselling.
They include:
Riot Games has an office in Singapore that opened in 2020.
Source: Riot Games
When MS News reached out to Riot Games, it said it is currently unable to provide additional information regarding the layoff beyond what has been published on its official website.
The company said in its public statement that it will share more details about its future plans in the coming weeks.
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