A statement straight from Riot Games executives Marc Merrill and Dylan Jadeja delivered the news of Riot Games' layoffs of over 500 employees, equating to a significant chunk of its workforce.
Why Did Riot Games Lay Off Employees?
Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill and newly appointed CEO Dylan Jadeja published a statement titled “Changes at Riot and the Road Ahead” addressing the players.
They began by assuring their gigantic player base that the layoffs were “not to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number” but rather labeled it a “necessity” to refocus on “fewer, high-impact projects” into the future.
In the statement, they outlined the details of the layoff, which will hit about 530 employees: around 11% of total Rioters. Props to Riot Games for transparency as they even published the email that was sent to the affected employees. Unfortunately, the time that both the statement and the email were publicized was also the same time the laid-off Rioters received the news, which was taken in bad taste by the community.
The vision that Riot Games holds for the future is to focus on their “core live games” which are League of Legends, Wild Rift, VALORANT, and Teamfight Tactics. You may notice that Legends of Runeterra wasn't mentioned, and that's because it's going to receive changes to improve its sustainability. Riot recognized the passionate community that has formed around LoR, but also cited the financial challenges it has encountered since launch. The Legends of Runeterra team will be reduced in size and will be refocused to “The Path of Champions,” LoR's PvE mode.
Players of the aforementioned games can expect events, modes, and long-term roadmaps that could potentially span multiple decades as a result of this ambitious vision that Riot Games has.
“Beyond live titles, we have projects in the pipeline that we can’t wait to get to you when they’re ready,” Jadeja and Merrill continued. “Project L has been making great progress and we’re looking for more opportunities for you to try out the game (stay tuned for more updates coming later this year). Arcane Season 2 is on track for November 2024. Plus, we have a number of projects cooking in various stages of R&D.” Fingers crossed that the MMORPG hasn't gotten the axe.
The overarching reason for the layoffs was once again reiterated mid-way into the article. “Our volume of releases will never be massive. We want everything we deliver to be something that you can be proud of and excited to share with friends.
That requires having financial flexibility to be able to take the time to make things that are truly great for players.
We know we’ll still have occasional misses, but we want those misses to be for the right reasons, not because we prioritized the wrong things or had to rush projects out the door before they were ready.”
Riot Cools Down the Forge
Riot Forge, the project where Riot Games lends their Runeterra IP to other game developers, is getting axed. “Forge was an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favorite indie devs and let them loose on Runeterra with their unique viewpoints, styles, and expertise,” wrote the executives.
“Across six titles spanning different game genres, regions, and characters, it’s been inspiring to see what these devs created in partnership with the Forge team. We’re proud of what we’ve done together to bring these stories to life, but it’s time to refocus our efforts on the ambitious projects underway internally at Riot.”
So enjoy Bandle Tale, as it's the last game to come out of this wonderful collaboration.
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