Reikon Games, the developers behind cyberpunky top-down shooter Ruiner, have reportedly become the latest studio to lay off dozens of staff, with over half of the Polish indie said to have lost their jobs earlier this week.
23.01.2024 - 06:19 / gadgets.ndtv.com / Marc Merrill / Dylan Jadeja / Lay Off
Tencent Holdings' Riot Games plans to lay off 530 employees, or about 11 percent of its staff globally, the online gaming company said on Monday in a blog that included a letter to employees from CEO Dylan Jadeja.
Los Angeles-based Riot, whose popular titles include League of Legends, said teams outside of core development will see the largest impact from layoffs.
Digital games publishers are struggling to grow, as audience hold off on buying expensive titles or stick to fewer games amid high inflation. Early last year, Electronic Arts cut 6 percent staff and gave up some office space.
"Today, we're a company without a sharp enough focus, and simply put, we have too many things underway. Some of the significant investments we've made aren't paying off the way we expected them to. Our costs have grown to the point where they're unsustainable," Jadeja said in the letter.
The changes will allow Riot to focus on its portfolio of live games League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift, according to a separate blog from Jadeja and co-founder Marc Merrill. The blog claimed that the studio had doubled in headcount over the past few years and long-term sustainability required focusing on high-impact projects. "This isn't to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number—it's a necessity," the blog said.
Riot will stop new game development under "Riot Forge", and drop some staff and features in Legends of Runeterra.
Tencent, which acquired a majority stake in Riot Games in 2011, also holds stake in fellow US video game developer Epic Games.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
Reikon Games, the developers behind cyberpunky top-down shooter Ruiner, have reportedly become the latest studio to lay off dozens of staff, with over half of the Polish indie said to have lost their jobs earlier this week.
Reikon Games has reportedly laid off 60 to 70 people, equating to 56 percent of the company.
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Microsoft will let go of 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, it said on Thursday, the latest cuts in the technology sector that has extended massive layoffs over the past years into 2024.
Ruiner developer Reikon Games has reportedly laid off 60 to 70 people, or roughly 80% of its workforce, according to Kotaku.
According to reporting from Kotaku, Black Forest Games has announced the termination of 50% of its overall workforce, which was said to be around 110 employees in 2023. They join a growing list of layoffs experienced in the industry, which continues to accelerate from last year.
Update: This story has now been updated with a response from a Microsoft spokesperson.
Microsoft has laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming division—mainly roles at Activision Blizzard King, but also some at Xbox and ZeniMax Media.
The new year continues to be a difficult one for the games industry, with Riot Games announcing layoffs affecting about 11% of their global workforce, or around 530 people. The company is also trimming its portfolio, shutting down Riot Forge, pulling back on some other projects, and recentering on its four core live titles: League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, and Wild Rift.
League of Legends developer Riot has announced that its upcoming Stardew Valley-style spin-off will be the last game in its promising indie effort.
Riot Games, the publisher-developer company behind League of Legends, has announced that it is laying off 530 employees. Plus, it's ending new game development under its Riot Forge arm, which produced third-party-developed games with the «A League of Legends Story» tag, like Ruined King, The Mageseeker, Song of Nunu, and the upcoming Bandle Tale, which will be the last in this line of releases.
Riot Games announced another big round of layoffs for the second year in a row. This time around, the studio mainly known for the League of Legends franchise plans to remove 11% of its large workforce. Around 530 employees will lose their jobs, although they will get benefits such as six months of severance pay at minimum, cash bonuses, and others.