Riot Games, the studio behind the popular League of Legends game, has announced another round of layoffs. Although this statement looks a bit contradictory, as it contains a promise that the «League» team will become «even bigger in the future than it is today». Yes, the layoffs will be beneficial.
The information about the layoffs came in a message published in X by Riot Games co-founder Mark Merrill. He stated that Riot «has changed our teams and how we operate to make sure we can continue to improve the League experience now and in the long term for».
«As part of the changes, we have made the tough decision to eliminate some roles,» Merrill wrote. «This is not about reducing headcount to save money, but about making sure we have the right expertise to keep the League great for another 15 years and beyond. While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even bigger than it is today as we develop the next phase of the League».
In a subsequent post, Merrill said that «success is not about throwing more people or money at the challenge» but the real goal is «the right team, the right priorities, and a sustainable approach to delivering what the players need».
A Riot Games spokesperson said that 27 League of Legends developers are being laid off, along with five people in the studio’s publishing business. The layoffs come less than a year after Riot laid off 530 employees and shut down its Riot Forge program, which it launched in 2019 to create single-player League of Legends games with outside studios.
At the time, CEO Dylan Jadeja said that Riot Games had become a «company without enough» focus and with too many projects that didn’t pay off. At the same time, he added that «we are not doing this to appease shareholders or impress some with quarterly profits — we made this decision because it is a necessity to maintain a long-term focus on» players.
Source: tomshardware