Riot Games is laying off 11 percent of its workforce globally

Earlier today, Riot Games announced that it is eliminating 530 roles globally, which make up about 11 percent of its workforce. The company publicly delivered this devastating news in two separate posts — one for players, and another for "Rioters," with the latter detailing severance package and some other benefits to treat the dismissed employees "with respect and grace."

Additionally, Riot Games shared that it is sunsetting its publishing label, Riot Forge, which has worked on six titles — including Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story due to be released on February 21. In their joint letter to gamers, CEO Dylan Jadeja and co-chairman Marc Merrill described Forge as "an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favorite indie devs," but now "it's time to refocus" on their internal projects. Forge will cease operation once it's done publishing Bandle Tale.

The execs also admitted that their digital collectible card game, Legends of Runeterra, hasn't been doing well enough financially since its launch in 2020. In the hopes of making this title more sustainable, its development team will be downsized, with its focus shifted to its more popular "The Path of Champions" single-player game mode.

Riot Games' cutback is the latest blow to the video game industry, after a total of around 9,000 people lost their jobs in 2023 alone. Embracer Group and Unity both laid off around 900 people each, whereas Epic Games fired about 830 people, and EA dismissed more than 1,000 employees. 2024 has only just began, and we fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg for the entire tech industry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/riot-games-is-laying-off-11-percent-of-its-workforce-globally-022034243.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/riot-games-is-laying-off-11-percent-of-its-workforce-globally-022034243.html?src=rss
Created 1y | Jan 23, 2024, 3:50:23 AM


Login to add comment

Other posts in this group

The Apple Watch Series 10 is $100 off ahead of Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day is around the corner, but there are plenty of great deals to be found before the July 8 to 11 even

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:18 PM | Engadget
Amazon Prime Day 2025: The best early deals available right now, dates and everything else you need to know

Amazon Prime Day 2025 will be here soon on July 8-11, but as to be expected, you can already find some decent sales

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:17 PM | Engadget
This Eufy robot vacuum is half off before Prime Day

The Eufy 11S Max robot vacuum

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:16 PM | Engadget
Supreme Court upholds Texas's porn site age verification law

The US Supreme Court has upheld a

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:14 PM | Engadget
NordVPN review 2025: Innovative features, a few missteps

When we say that NordVPN is a good VPN that's not quite great, it's important to put that in perspective. Building a good VPN is hard, as evidenced by all the shovelware VPNs flooding the market. N

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:13 PM | Engadget
Donald Trump is reportedly preparing a sweep of pro-AI executive orders

We know what you’re thinking: there just isn’t enough AI around right now. Luckily for you, Donald Trump emphatically agrees. According to a new

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:12 PM | Engadget
Peter Thiel is utterly wrong about Alzheimer's

The New York Times ran a

Jun 27, 2025, 5:40:10 PM | Engadget