The previously announced D&D open world roleplaying game in development at Hidden Path Entertainment has now been officially paused by the studio based in Bellevue, Washington.
23.01.2024 - 10:51 / gameranx.com / Lay Off
Riot Games has announced plans to lay off 530 of their employees, or about 11 % of their workforce.
In a public blog post on their website, Riot gave this explanation:
“For most of our history, we’ve managed to avoid days like this, but this decision is critical for the future of Riot. This isn’t to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number—it’s a necessity.
Over the past few years, as Riot more than doubled in headcount, we spread our efforts across more and more projects without sharp enough razors to decide what players needed most.
The adjustments we’re making aim to focus us on the areas that have the greatest impact on your experience while reducing investment on things that don’t.”
So, the unfortunate truth is, Riot made the same mistake many other studios and game publishers did, of hiring too many people, for projects that have now proven to be unsustainable.
Riot then laid out their plans for each project and division. League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift, are all safe, with long-term roadmaps well established and still on track for the months ahead.
Riot’s upcoming fighting game, Project L, and the second season of TV show Arcane are both still on track as well, with the latter scheduled for a November 2024 release. Riot also still has other projects in development.
What are winding down are Riot’s small video game publishing label, Riot Forge, and Legends of Runeterra, which is not being cancelled, but scaled down. Riot Forge’s last published game will be Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story.
Riot describes Riot Forge as “an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favorite indie devs and let them loose on Runeterra.”
On the other hand, Riot revealed that Legends of Runeterra “has faced financial challenges since launch, costing significantly more to develop and support than it generates.” These changes are to take the title towards sustainability.
Riot also made their statement to employees public, and revealed a generous severance package for their outgoing employees. This includes six months severance, healthcare, their equity, career placement and visa support. This is the same Riot Games that faced turbulent harassment issues in the past, so it is noteworthy to point this out as well.
GameRanx wishes the outgoing employees of Riot Games the best, and hope that they can find employment back in the video game industry.
The previously announced D&D open world roleplaying game in development at Hidden Path Entertainment has now been officially paused by the studio based in Bellevue, Washington.
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.
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.
Update: This story has now been updated with a response from a Microsoft spokesperson.
Microsoft is laying off 1900 people across its video game teams, including Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox, equating to approximately eight percent of its gaming workforce.
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.
Riot Games have announced that they will shortly lay off "about 530" people, or 11 per cent of their global workforce, so as to "create focus and move us towards a more sustainable future", in the words of CEO Dylan Jadeja. The "biggest impact" will be felt outside of core development, though they'll affect at least one major internal team - the developers of Legends Of Runeterra. Riot are also binning off the Riot Forge publishing label, under which third-party developers create smaller-scale games based on Riot's own intellectual properties.
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.
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.
We’re not even a month through 2024 and it’s looking to be a rough year for the games industry. Massive developer and publisher Riot Games, home to League of Legends and Valorant, announced today it has laid off 530 employees or roughly 11% of its workforce. Legends of Runetterra, Riot’s competitor to Hearthstone, is also seeing a reduction in team size and will shift focus to its Path of Champions PvE game mode. Riot Forge, a division of Riot Games that focuses on teaming up with established developers and creating unique single-player experiences in the Runterra universe, will also be sunset.