Riot Games Axes 11% Staff, Halts Riot Forge Games Amidst Restructuring

Riot Games Inc., a Tencent-owned video game developer, confirmed it is set to terminate 11% of its workforce, translating to 530 employees. The company said this move is not being taken to alleviate the shareholders but is a necessary step.

The management of Tencent Holdings’s gaming subsidiary released a memo informing workers about the upcoming layoffs. The note also mentioned that Riot Games has too many projects but too little focus.

Workforce Reduction to Divert Focus to Profitable Projects

According to Bloomberg, Riot Game’s chief executive officer, Dylan Jadeja, said the company is planning to focus on fewer projects because when it made “several big bets across the company,” including new game titles, not all of these yielded promising results, this investments and resources were not completely put to good use.

As the company plans to cut some projects, some workers must go. He also noted that for its 14 years in operation, Riot Games mostly operated “League of Legends,” which has remained the company’s most popular game, so it would be better to focus more on it this time.

“Today, I am sharing a decision we hoped we would never have to make at Riot. We are changing some of the bets we have made and shifting how we work across the company to create focus and move us toward a more sustainable future,” Dylan Jadeja, chief executive officer of Riot Games, said in an announcement. “This decision means we are eliminating about 530 roles globally, which represents around 11% of our workforce, with the biggest impact to teams outside of core development.”

The CEO also apologized to those who will be affected by the layoffs. “To all the Rioters who are being laid off, we are deeply sorry that it has come to this,” he said.

Discontinuation of Riot Forge Games

Riot said it would impose job cuts on its “Legends of Runeterra” team because it has not performed as well as expected. Moreover, it will also end game development works under its Riot Forge subsidiary. The company said the unit will fold after releasing “Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story” next month.

Photo by: Riot Games Press Room