Riot Games, the developer of games such as League of Legends, Valorant, and TFT, announced that it will be “laying off approximately 530 characters globally,” with the most obvious impact appearing to be on Legends of Runeterra ” and the impact of the team behind the Riot Forge Project. This is the man behind games like Bandle’s Tales: League of Legends Stories.
As revealed in a blog post, the layoffs will affect approximately 11% of Riot’s workforce, with the developer saying “the biggest impact is [is] team outside of core development. “This decision is critical to the future of Riot,” co-founder Marc Merrill and CEO Dylan Jadeja said in the post , “It’s not about appeasing shareholders or hitting quarterly profit numbers, it’s necessary. “
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As a result of the move, Riot will focus more on its “core live games” – League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift – stressing that its plans for these titles are “more than ever Ever more ambitious.” “Events, modes, and long-term roadmaps are expected to provide these games with a vibrant (hopefully multi-decade) future,” Merrill and Jadeja wrote.
The upcoming Project L doesn’t appear to be affected either, with Riot saying it’s “already making tremendous progress” and hinting that more updates for the game will be coming later this year.
On the other hand, through layoffs, the company has chosen to cut back on Legends of Runeterra and its Riot Forge program, which has produced games like Ruined King: A League of Legends Story and Convergence: A League of Legends Story. The former will reduce team size and refocus development around the Road to Champions model.
As Riot acknowledged in the post, LoR has historically struggled to achieve the financial success it hoped for. Some members of its community say this is likely related to Riot not promoting the game as heavily as possible. Post after the layoff announcement.
As far as Forge is concerned, Riot has officially “ended new game development” with Bandle Tale following its February 21 release. Former Riot head of creative development Greg Street shared “a little eulogy” for the move. The Twitter thread is well worth reading, as he expressed his appreciation for the ability it gives developers to tell stories that League of Legends itself can’t effectively tell.
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The layoffs also affected some personnel in Riot’s League of Legends and Valorant esports divisions, though to a lesser extent than the teams discussed above.
Last year was truly a scary time for layoffs in the games industry, and the sentiments expressed by developers in this year’s GDC State of the Game Industry Survey reflected that.
