Earlier this year, Riot Games laid off 530 employees to cut costs.
Riot Games said it had plans to expand the League of Legends team
Photo Credit: Riot Games
Riot Games is laying off staff for the second time this year, the studio confirmed Tuesday. The latest round of cuts will affect the PC development team behind Riot's massively popular MOBA title League of Legends. Riot said the layoffs were part of larger changes to its teams that would ensure long-term growth and improvement of League. The affected employees will receive a severance package, the studio said.
In its announcement, Riot Games said that the decision to eliminate roles wasn't taken to “save money,” and the League of Legends team will eventually grow in size.
“As part of these changes, we've made the tough decision to eliminate some roles. 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,” Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill said in a post on X Tuesday. “While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League,” he added.
Riot did not confirm the number of staffers affected by the latest round of layoffs in its announcement, but a studio spokesperson confirmed to Eurogamer that 32 employees, including 27 roles on the League of Legends team and an additional five roles in publishing, will be impacted.
Laid off employees will be provided with a severance package, that includes a minimum of six months' pay, annual bonus, job placement assistance, health coverage, and more, Merrill said in his post.
According to the Riot co-founder, the studio was working on the “next phase” of League of Legends and would share more about its “ambitious plans” for the game in the future.
This is the second round of layoffs to hit Riot Games this year. In January, the studio laid off 530 employees –– about 11 percent of its global workforce. Teams outside of core development absorbed the largest impact from the layoffs.
"Today, we're a company without a sharp enough focus, and simply put, we have too many things underway. Some of the significant investments we've made aren't paying off the way we expected them to. Our costs have grown to the point where they're unsustainable," Riot Games CEO Dylan Jadeja had said in a letter to employees at the time.
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