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"This isn’t about reducing headcount to save money." Riot Games is laying off even more workers on the League of Legends team.

More cuts are hitting Riot Games, but the company leadership insists the teams will eventually be even bigger.

www.windowscentral.com

"This isn’t about reducing headcount to save money." Riot Games is laying off even more workers on the League of Legends team.​

More cuts are hitting Riot Games, but the company leadership insists the teams will eventually be even bigger.

What you need to know​

• Riot Games, developer and publisher of games like League of Legends and Valorant, is cutting part of the League of Legends team.
• According to Riot Games CPO and co-founder Marc Merrill, this "tough decision" is being made not to save money, but to better position the team for success.
• Riot Games previously laid off 530 employees in January 2024, or around 11% of the company staff at the time.
• It's not clear how many Riot employees have been laid off in this new wave of cuts.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

 

[Kacho]

• According to Riot Games CPO and co-founder Marc Merrill, this "tough decision" is being made not to save money, but to better position the team for success.

Who are they getting rid of that was impeding their chances at success?

 

[MiguelItUp]

One of my buddies got hit with this layoff, really sucks. Basically means almost all of my previous work homies have all been affected by layoffs this year.

 

[jakinov]

Who are they getting rid of that was impeding their chances at success?

Low performers. The freed up money lets them hire different people later. That's likely what he means it's not about saving money because it's going to be eventually spent.

Full excerpt:

"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 says, adding that the team on League of Legends will eventually be "even larger" than it is right now.

 

[Punished Miku]

Not even about money. We just hated working with these people that much.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Who are they getting rid of that was impeding their chances at success?

This.

Such an incredibly BS excuse everyone can see right through. Yes, this is all about the glorious margin.

LoL, one of the most profitable and strong IPs in videogame history is laying off their workers. Let that sink in.

 

[DragonNCM]

I see 500$ skins don't sell well.......
There is still hope in humanity !

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Low performers.

They were hired at Riot to begin with, no doubt with extensive recruitment process.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[PeteBull]

Moba genre not even once here so fine with me, i only feel sad when high quality singleplayer games dev teams get lay offs/studio clousure(not so recent example that still hurts is sony japan studio)

 

[Magic Carpet]

Did a sizable player base move to Fortnite exclusively?

 

[Skifi28]

Who are they getting rid of that was impeding their chances at success?

Diversity hires?

 

[Pop]

You know the world is in the gutter when Riot needs to lay devs off their biggest game

 

[jakinov]

They were hired at Riot to begin with, no doubt with extensive recruitment process.

So? Companies hire the wrong people all the time. There's only so much you can figure out about a person in a round of interviews. People get laid off or fired all the time for sucking at the job.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

So? Companies hire the wrong people all the time. There's only so much you can figure out about a person in a round of interviews. People get laid off or fired all the time for sucking at the job.

We both know it’s about the margin.

 

[geary]

Damn Phil, what's he doing there? That's because of gamepass, cause LoL is on it now...

 

[jakinov]

We both know it’s about the margin.

No we don’t know that. You’re free to believe that though. But the company has shown to wants to grow even bigger in the past with all their new projects and initiatives. Getting rid of people to hire new people is a normal part of business. Having the same margin on a watermelon is better than on a grape. Even if they are doing layoffs to improve their margins it doesn’t even matter because if the company operates fine without them then they didn’t need them to begin with.