ALBAWABA - League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games announced laying off 11% of its staff on Monday, Jan. 23, 2024, continuing the ongoing trend since 2023.
According to The Verge, the gaming industry has been on a layoff spree since 2023 with more than 9,000 employees laid off last year. 2024 seems to be continuing the trend with Riot Games being on top stating “We are refocusing on fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future," meaning that they will let go of around 530 (approximately 11 percent) of its employees.
Riot Games lays off more than 500 employees
Many feel that game developers are laying off people left and right due to a “post-pandemic course correction” amid a survey taken at the Developers Conference (GDC) which showcased that 51 percent felt that the layoffs were coming anyway.
Riot Games' CEO Dylan Jadeja said in the statement that “Some of the significant investments we’ve made aren’t paying off the way we expected them to,” referring to some of their games that didn't do as expected financially including the free to play card game, Legends of Runetera.
Riot Games
Dylan then went on to add that Riot is currently focusing on its "core live games" including League of Legends Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift. They also said that Project L (Riot's upcoming 2D fighting game with League characters) is making "great progress" and Netflix's second season of Arcane is also on the right track.
Some users on X (formerly known as Twitter) took to the platform to raise awareness of the ongoing laying-off issue the industry is facing and demanded gamers go on a Riot Games strike on Feb. 11, 2024, in solidarity with the employees who will lose their jobs. The strike asked for people to not play any Riot Games title on the date mentioned above.
Read more on Riot Games' official website here.
