League Of Legends developer Riot Games has laid off 530 staff members and shut down all development on spin-off games.
Yesterday, Riot Games announced in a blog post that it is laying off 530 roles globally (11% of overall staffers). Alongside this announcement, the developer has stated that it is stopping all active development on new spin-off games of League Of Legends after the release of Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story.
“We’re ending new game development under Riot Forge after the upcoming release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story. Forge was an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favourite indie devs and let them loose on Runeterra with their unique viewpoints, styles and expertise,” the blog post read.
“Across six titles spanning different game genres, regions, and characters, it’s been inspiring to see what these devs created in partnership with the Forge team. We’re proud of what we’ve done together to bring these stories to life, but it’s time to refocus our efforts on the ambitious projects underway internally at Riot.”
Riot also released the email that was sent to all staff members internally regarding the layoffs and changes to the studio, which stated that “there is no perfect way to do a layoff” and that the studio “wants those who are leaving us to feel supported in this difficult moment”.
The email also details the full severance package that developers will be receiving, including health benefits, a minimum six months of salary and visa support for developers who have travelled to work for the studio.
In 2023, an estimated 6,500 jobs were cut from various studios (per NPR). With the addition of the Riot Games layoffs to the current tally of layoffs in 2024, the amount of people cut from employers in the gaming industry has hit 3,800 (as reported by Kotaku), over half the total estimated layoffs in 2023.
Earlier this month, Twitch also laid off 500 people, with the CEO of the platform claiming that it “isn’t profitable”.