What you need to know
- Riot Games, developer and publisher of games like League of Legends and Valorant, is cutting part of the League of Legends team.
- According to Riot Games CPO and co-founder Marc Merrill, this “tough decision” is being made not to save money, but to better position the team for success.
- Riot Games previously laid off 530 employees in January 2024, or around 11% of the company staff at the time.
- It’s not clear how many Riot employees have been laid off in this new wave of cuts.
Another week brings even more layoffs across the gaming industry.
This time, the cuts are coming from Riot Games, the developer and publisher of games like League of Legends and Valorant. Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill shared the news via Twitter (X), where he wrote that the teams were “investing heavily in solving today’s challenges faster while also building for the future,” before explaining that members of the team were being cut.
“This isn’t about reducing headcount to save money—it’s about making sure we have the right expertise so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond,” Merrill says, adding that the team on League of Legends will eventually be “even larger” than it is right now. Affected employees are getting six months of severance, as well as other benefits like health insurance and job placement assistance.
Riot Games already laid off about 530 employees at the start of the year. At the time, that was 11% of the publisher’s overall workforce. It’s not clear right now exactly how many employees have been affected by this latest round of cuts, but I’ve verified that the layoffs hit art and production teams at the company, with character artists, producers, and others being let go.
2024 brought mass layoffs across the gaming industry
While 2023 saw a number of job cuts and studio closures, 2024 has been even more brutal, with massive layoffs at Microsoft Gaming, PlayStation, Electronic Arts, and many, many more. The juxtaposition between companies working on bigger games than ever before while also cutting hundreds or thousands of employees is brutal to watch unfold.
Merrill’s comments about the League of Legends team eventually being bigger than it is now feel extra-egregious, even in the greater context of widespread layoffs. Riot Games appears to be taking the stance that it’ll be easier to eventually hire top talent rather than training existing workers to get teams to where they need to be. That’s certainly a choice to opt for.
As always, my thoughts are with those affected by the cuts and their families.
