2024 has definitely not been an easy year for Riot Games and the gaming industry as a whole. The company behind League of Legends had many challenges, some of which resulted in some of the biggest layoffs in its history. If you remember, Riot announced that it parted ways with 530 employees back in January, a decision that shocked the community.
Just when we thought the problems were over, Riot announced another layoff wave. This time, the decision affects 32 employees. Let’s learn more about the complete situation.
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The second layoff in 2024
As mentioned, Riot Games announced that the the company will release 32 employees in total. Interestingly, 27 out of these people were League of Legends developers, whereas the other 5 were a part of Riot’s publishing division.
Aside from the previous layoff wave in January, Riot did the same in 2023. Back then, the company decided to cut 46 jobs, a year later it repeated.
What did League of Legend’s staff had to say
Marc Merrill, Riot’s co-founder, said back then that he and his team were not slowing down League’s development. Instead, the company is investing in the future. He also said that the goal of the decision was to ensure that League of Legends had the right expertise. He even said that League’s team would be even larger than it is today, indicating that the company may hire new people in the future.
Read more: LoL Patch Notes 14.18 Review
In his tweet, Marc Merrill ensured that everyone who got laid off received “support”. According to him, everyone got at least a 6-month salary, an annual bonus, health coverage, job placement assistance, and more.
A lot of people thought that LoL’s team made the layoff decision to save money, but it seems like this isn’t the case. Marc Merrill reassured that this was not about saving money and that the idea was to focus solely on the game’s future.
What’s next for Riot Games and League of Legends?
Judging by what Marc Merrill said, the game should have a promising future ahead of it.
However, considering Riot’s layoffs last year, most people in the gaming space do not think this will be the case.
We need to remind you that Riot removed close to 11% of its total workforce back in January. The most recent “job removals” were not as fierce as those from a few months ago, but 32 people are no longer a part of the team.
The worst part about all of this is that layoffs are an ongoing trend in the gaming industry. A lot of people, including those who cover League of Legends or other titles, have lost their jobs, and it does not seem like it will end anytime soon.
There are several different reasons as to why this is happening. Some people believe this is the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic because video games were extremely popular back then, and companies needed a lot of people to live up to their fans’ expectations. Now that this is no longer the case, however, it seems like some of these businesses decided to part ways with their employees.
No one knows what will happen in the future, but if we have to make a guess based on the numbers, gaming has a bright future. We really hope this will be the case with League of Legends because it is one of the most popular video game titles in the world.
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