Shockingly, yet another video game company is laying off employees. This time, Riot Games’ co-founder CPO Marc Merrill announced via Twitter (I will never call it X) that the company was laying off more employees while also promising things wouldn’t slow down.
“I want to share some important updates about [“League of Legends”] PC. We’ve made changes to our teams and how we work to make sure we can keep improving the League experience now and for the long-term. But I want to be clear: we’re not slowing down work on the game you love. We’re investing heavily in solving today’s challenges faster while also building for the future.”
“As part of these changes, we’ve made the tough decision to eliminate some roles. This isn’t about reducing headcount to save money—it’s about making sure we have the right expertise so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond. While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League. For Rioters who are laid off, we’re supporting them with a severance package that includes a minimum of six months’ pay, annual bonus, job placement assistance, health coverage, and more.”
Merrill then says he and the leadership group at Riot have “full confidence,” in the remaining team members. He then follows up that post with another, discussing budgets and team sizes.
While we’re on the subject of team size, I want to talk a little about both size and budget, and why they aren’t the right way to measure whether a team will be successful. We’ve definitely been memed in the past for talking about budgets, and rightly so. Success isn’t about throwing more people or money at a challenge. We’ve seen small teams at Riot (and elsewhere) build incredible things, while large teams (both at Riot and elsewhere) miss the mark.
While the League team will ultimately be larger after these changes, what matters more than size is having the right team, right priorities, and a sustainable approach to delivering what players need. If we’re solving the wrong problems, more resources won’t fix it. It’s about building smarter and healthier, not just bigger.
To translate, Merrill’s posts indicate that yes, this move was a cost-saving measure and the team that still populates Riot’s offices shouldn’t expect any additional funding coming their way any time soon. After all, Merrill and the co-founders need a new summer home, so any move to keep stock prices high and their jobs safe needed to happen.
Riot performed its first round of layoffs earlier this year in January, providing a lengthy explanation as to what was going to happen to the 11 percent of employees who were laid off and for the future of the company. Some laid-off individuals reported they found out about their termination via social media, as the company did not even put out an internal memo to its now-former employees.
According to EuroGamer, over 20,000 gaming industry professionals lost their jobs between 2023 and May of 2024 — that’s not even counting the layoffs that have taken place since then. Making matters worse, we’ve seen few CEO resignations due to incompetence and mismanagement, but plenty of average people losing their jobs in a market that’s been falling apart for years.
But great news — Riot Games’ parent company, Tencent, is seeing a steady growth in its stock prices since the beginning of the year, which now doubt appeases those Merrill, CEO Dylan Jadeja, and the rest of Riot’s C-suite are really interested in: its stockholders.
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