Riot Games Lays Off Staff, Switches to Multiplayers Exclusively
Layoffs in the game industry have not skipped Riot Games studio. Several hundred people will be sacked. To make matters worse, Riot Forge will be closed.
Last year was marked by mass layoffs in the gaming industry. Unfortunately, in 2024 this trend continues. The latest studio to announce job cuts is Riot Games.
- The scale of layoffs is substantial -- 530 people, equal to 11% of the staff, will lose their jobs at Riot Games.
- Riot is a successful studio, so one can wonder what is the reason for such mass layoffs. President Dylan Jadeja, in a letter to employees and players, explains that Riot Games has become a team without a clearly defined vision that was involved in too many projects.
- From now on, the studio will focus on the development of its most important games, i.e. Lague of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift.
The card game Legends of Runeterra was not among the priority items. Unfortunately, the production didn't achieve commercial success and earns significantly less than its development costs. Riot Games doesn't intend to abandon this project, but the team responsible for it will be reduced.
Developers will focus on The Path of Champions PvE mode, as this is where players spend most of their time now. The authors hope that these changes will allow Legends of Runeterra to start earning money.
Riot Games also assures that work on the fighting game Project L is progressing as planned. They will soon share new materials from this production with the players.
End of Riot Forge
Unfortunately, the decision was also made to close Riot Forge. Under this banner, the studio released single-player games from other developers. The last production to be released as part of this initiative will be Bandle Tale, which is slated to release on February 21. This news can be saddening, as Riot Forge has produced a number of gems such as Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, Convergence, Song of Nunu and The Mageseeker.
In the end, it's worth mentioning that CD Projekt RED is interested in obtaining the talent currently leaving Riot Games. On X (formerly Twitter), quest director Pawel Sasko informed that various CDPR teams are currently looking for employees for many positions and encouraged developers affected by these reductions to check their job offers.
