Riot Games, the developer of popular titles like Valiant and League of Legends, is laying off 530 roles globally. CEO Dylan Jadeja apologized to the employees and offered a cash bonus, continued health benefits, and job placement services for 6 months to help them transition to new jobs.
Riot Games
, the developer of popular titles like Valiant and League of Legends has revealed that it is laying off hundreds of employees. Riot Games’
CEO
Dylan Jadeja sent an email to all
employees
saying how the company had doubled the
headcount
in the last couple of years. “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,” Jadeja said in the blog post.
“This decision means we’re eliminating about 530 roles globally, which represents around 11% of our workforce, with the biggest impact to teams outside of core development. This also sadly means we’ll be saying goodbye to many talented colleagues and friends across all areas of Riot,” he told employees in the email.
He also apologised to employees who are laid off. “I realise this is awful news to hear, and especially hard for those who will be leaving us. To all the Rioters who are being laid off, we are deeply sorry that it has come to this.
“I want to be super clear about something: this is absolutely the last thing we ever wanted to do. A decision like this has a massive impact on people’s lives and on the culture of Riot. We’re not doing this to appease shareholders or to hit some quarterly earnings number – we’ve made this decision because it’s a necessity,” he told the employees.
Laptops, job assistance and more
Jadeja also listed what the company is doing for all the employees who are being laid off. Jadeja told employees the company will offer a minimum 6 months of salary, which includes notice period for all Rioters whose roles are going away, and more for those with longer tenure, in line with local laws. Furthermore, the company will offer a cash bonus equal to 1x (100% of) everyone’s individual 2023 Annual Performance Bonus (APB) target, even if Rioters joined within the last year. “In locations where Riot provides healthcare, Rioters covered by our health benefits will continue to be covered through their last day of employment. In addition, they’ll be offered additional pay to cover their health benefits (medical, dental and vision), equal to the length of severance pay, and rounded up to the whole month,” Jadeja said.
A laptop is an essential part of finding new work, so after returning their work computers, Rioters will have the option to request a laptop from IT if they don’t have one at home. They can keep their current peripherals like their headset, mouse, and keyboard. Laid off employees will have immediate access to job placement services for 6 months including, career coaching, networking, resume writing and review, and more to help them transition to a new job, said Riot Games CEO.
English (US) ·