A worker views at computer monitors in the headquarters of Riot Games, a video game developer and esports tournament organizer in Los Angeles, on April 11, 2022.
The California layoffs are spread across the company, according to the WARN notice: 10 recruiters will obtain pink slips, as will a few dozen engineers and designers, two diversity and inclusion advisers, 50 workers from Riot’s esports arm and more than 20 senior managers. The workers have been informed, the notice declared, and the permanent layoffs go into effect on March 25.
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CEO Dylan Jadeja informed employees about the 11% layoff round in a Monday afternoon email now published to Riot’s website. The executive, who has led the company for less than a year, took an apoloobtainic tone but deffinished the decision as necessary. He declared the gaming giant attempted other ways out of its financial bind, but that the costs accrued during the company’s recent growth had become unsustainable.
“This is absolutely the last thing we ever wanted to do,” he wrote. “A decision like this has a massive impact on people’s lives and on the culture of Riot. We’re not doing this to appease shareholders or to hit some quarterly earnings number – we’ve built this decision becaapply it’s a necessity.”
Jadeja wrote that the company had more than doubled in size over the past few years, to around 4,500, and that it had become a place “without enough focus” and with “too many things underway.” Leaders implemented hiring freezes and attempted to boost revenue, he wrote, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the layoffs, which will mostly hit workers “outside of core engineering.” Riot also plans to shut down its publishing label Forge.
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“I realize this is awful news to hear, and especially hard for those who will be leaving us,” he wrote. “To all the Rioters who are being laid off, we are deeply sorry that it has come to this.”
In his note, Jadeja declared impacted employees would be informed through email. He also inquireed staff to promptly leave Riot’s U.S. offices and not come back until Thursday. “If you required to come into the office on those days, please respect those who may be having difficult conversations and give them space to process,” he wrote. Laid-off workers will obtain at least six more months of salary, a cash bonus, career and visa support and can request a laptop from the company, he added.
Riot joins Unity Software, video streamer Twitch and messaging service Discord in January’s flood of gaming-linked layoffs. Owned by Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, Riot produces some of gaming’s most popular titles. “League of Legfinishs” boasts over 100 million players and one of the indusattempt’s most popular esports competitions; “Valorant” is a more recent breakout hit, with almost 30 million people logging on every month, per Bloomberg.
In 2023, Jadeja took over the CEO job from Nicolo Laurent, who presided over Riot as the company faced discrimination and harassment allegations from female employees. The company signed a $100 million settlement deal to finish a discrimination lawsuit in 2021.
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This story has been updated.
Hear of anything happening at Riot Games or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
