Riot Games has initiated another wave of layoffs. It was announced by Riot Games co-founder and President of Games, Marc Merrill.

Merrill explained that the company has made changes to the workflows of LoL development. According to Merrill, the decision was not made to cut costs. He assured that the development of the MOBA would not slow down, and Riot Games is actively investing in its future.

As a result of these changes, the LoL publisher laid off several dozen employees. The decision affected 32 people — 27 developers and five employees from the publishing division.

There is something to think about. First, why would the company eliminate positions if cutting costs is not the goal? The possible explanation might be that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and to unify vision some people had to be let go. However, this means that the upper management has problems, because in this case the blame for mismanagement is on them.

Second, we've seen some interviews in the past that promised big updates for League of Legends, and, to be frankly, this year, aside from the Vanguard anti-cheat which is questionable, and super expensive Faker bundle, there is not much going on. Considering past lay-offs, is Riot really doing well?

At least, all affected employees will receive severance pay equal to six months' salary plus different bonuses and perks like medical insurance. Yet, even that might not solve all the problems caused by contract termination.

This isn't the first round of layoffs at Riot Games in 2024. In January, the company laid off a larger portion of its workforce, cutting 11% of staff, which amounted to around 530 people.

Main image: riotgames.com

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