League of Legends and Valorant studio Riot Games has been hit with another round of layoffs, impacting an unknown number of developers.
In an update shared to Twitter, Riot co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill shared “some important updates” about League of Legends. Chiefly, there have been some “changes to our teams and how we work to make sure we can keep improving the League experience now and for the long-term. Merrill stresses that Riot isn’t “slowing down work” on League and that it’s actually “investing heavily in solving today’s challenges faster while also building for the future.”
That’s an interesting way of saying Riot is laying off “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,” Merrill said. “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.”
Riot developers impacted by the layoffs will be offered a severance package that comes with six months’ pay, an annual bonus, health coverage, job placement assistance, “and more.”
It hasn’t been a year since Riot’s last wave of layoffs. In January, the company killed about 500 jobs, 11% of its workforce at the time, and announced plans to effectively shutter its experimental Forge indie label after the release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story.
Former Blizzard president says the “gaming downturn” is “a little bit overstated” and companies just wanted to “cut back” after the pandemic.
