1y ago

An Important Update about Riot’s Future

www.riotgames.com An Important Update about Riot’s Future

The following is a copy of the internal message from our CEO.

TLDR: Riot is downscaling. The severance package is great but it's another round of layoffs in the industry.

This will also majorly affect Legends of Runeterra. They're putting the game on life support it seems, and will focus on the PvE mode.

They're also shutting down Riot Forge, their collaboration with other studios to make smaller games with their IP.

Hacker News @lemmy.smeargle.fans

Riot Games laying off 11%

www.riotgames.com /en/news/2024-rioter-update

5 0

56 comments

Riot is a trash company.
I feel for the employees who lost their jobs.
Its always grating when CEOs say they "take responsibility" but they're not taking a demotion and paycut. No, somehow, the idiots who made the shitty decisions get to keep making them. Apparently that's "responsibility."
- I was laid off from my small warehouse job because the company wasn't making enough money. The next month my boss took his family on an African safari. Eat the rich.
- These layoffs are always for shareholders as share prices go up when the layoffs happen. It's not about cash flow. It's purely about shareholders.
  Share prices go up always affects c suite the most. They get better returns on the shares they own and also get large bonuses. Far from take responsibility, a ceo massively profits from layoffs.
- I don't think there will ever be any CEO that takes a pay cut over doing layoffs.
  
  Satoru Iwata and the Wii U is the single instance I can think of.
  
  I remember reading in 2020 the CEOs of Toyota and Columbia sportswear both reduced their salary so they wouldn't immediately have to lay people off like most companies were doing.
  
  Iirc the Nintendo cceos did so they wouldn't have to fire people a handful of years ago. Not sure how often that happens though.
- I feel for the employees who lost their jobs.
  I don't. They got exactly what they deserved.
  
  Care to elaborate? It sounds like you're cheering for folks, who have little to no control over how the company operates, loosing their way of making a living.
- I don't really think riot is trash. But I don't follow the media around gaming that much. Their layoff plan seems extremely generous and caring considering other bullshit I've seen. It sounds like they care about people - so it's good pr at least .
  
  https://kotaku.com/inside-the-culture-of-sexism-at-riot-games-1828165483
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/12/27/riot-discrimination-100-million-settlement/
  When your culture of sexism results in a class action lawsuit from former and current employees, and you pay out to the tune of 100 million and keep all the same executives who were accused of harassment and discrimination, and you have to have a third party watch over your company for years to make sure you're not still doing this stuff: you're a trash company.
  so it’s good pr at least .
  I couldn't roll my eyes any harder. That's literally all it is.
  
  Literally the very first thing Riot did was steal and intentionally attempt to sabotage a beloved free game cause they were greedy and wanted all the money.
  It's just a shame it worked.
  
  It's pretty generous, but maybe the CEO could just take a pay cut

So basically...
CEO claims responsibility.
Employees face the consequences.
That tracks.
- Yeah it's weird how the C-suites never have to personally bear responsibility despite being the one either making these decisions or fostering the environment in which these decisions are made.
  How come companies are allowed to fire even one employee before the decision makers are bled of all money they have? Shouldn't the life-ruining start with the ones who are responsible?!
  
  I guess the reasoning is
  The company is doing great => the CEO does a great job
  Company needs to downsize=> can't afford a change in leadership in these trying times
  It gets more complicated when the CEO is also a founder/owner

I just hope that these companies don't have the gall to complain about a lack of manpower or expertise availability a few years down the line. Because by coordinating all these layoffs, they are currently creating a vacuum in which a lot of professionals in the industry won't have any chance to acquire experience and develop their skills, and many will probably have to change their career trajectory significantly just to ensure their economic well-being. And once they see how greener the grass is outside the videogame industry, let me assure you, they won't be coming back.
If you are not willing to stick with your professionals through your thin, you don't deserve their availability and effort through your thick.
- don’t have the gall to complain about a lack of manpower or expertise availability a few years down the line.
  Don't worry, they will.
  Companies aren't like people with friends who hold them accountable for lying.
- these companies don’t have the gall to complain about a lack of manpower or expertise availability a few years down the line
  Of course they will. It's all driven by investor money and C-suite bonuses, the rest of managed just bends over and pulls down their pants. If the investors think gaming is hot, everyone will desperately hire. If they are meh on it, everyone shuts down.
  You might think this sounds like an unhealthy company model to let investors run everything like that. And you might be right! But we also created a system where the people making these decisions are monetarily involved with the investors, not opposed to them. Hence what hte investors say goes.
- I mean, the whole point of layoffs, in any industry, is to get rid of more experienced staff who are higher paid, and replace them with noobs that you can pay less.

I don't take any company seriously that expects their customer base to willingly allow ring zero access.
- literally a rootkit bruh
  Not even the linux wine hackers feel like removing the DRM just to play the game. They'd rather spend that time on an actual needed software like photoshop.
- Yep. I'm glad I quit playing LoL a long time ago, when it stopped being fun and everything got typecast to very specific roles. I used to be able to do great in any position there was as teemo. Fun times.

The severance package is great
It always baffles me to think that there is no minimum mandatory severance pay in the good old US of A, but considering 6 months of salary is "great" is saying even more about how low the bar is.
- Yeah, in most of Europe, 6 months would be bare minimum on top of whatever else the employee’s contract buyout requires. But since the good ol US of A is at-will and doesn’t have employment contracts, employers can just let you go without any notice or severance package.
- I got far less than that from my severance package last year, I got the minimum mandatory amount, but I'm not in USA.

My friend works here and is not getting their contract renewed. Luckily they knew it wasn't getting renewed but it still sucks. They've loved working there.
- 6 months severance isn't half bad though, I hope they can find another job they'll love within that time.
  
  If I'm interpreting the CEOs Post post correctly, the severance package is only applicable if your contract gets canceled prematurely or if you are being laid off. If your contract ends and is not renewed, all obligations are fulfilled, so there is no severance package since the contract simply ends. (Timel/Project based contract). I could be wrong though. It would make sense to have project or time-based contracts - these layoffs mainly affect the "permanent employees."
  
  Their contract wasn't ended as far as I know and would've been ending in about a month or so anyways.

Disappointing to hear they are giving up on runeterra

This isn't about shareholders, but it just so happens that the share price always goes up after a round of layoffs :)

And nothing of value was lost.
Sucks for the employees, though. I feel for them.

My friend got "downscaled" today. Real dick move.
- Yeah, total dick move given that working for Riot games is a fundamental human right. The bastards!
- To be honest, he got what he deserved working for a company like riot.
  
  What an incredibly stupid fucking comment. Was this a joke or did you really think that this was appropriate?

In the tech industry, I've always enjoyed watching what those laid-off employees end up moving onto. While most find jobs elsewhere, you occasionally see some employees form new startups, or try something different with what they've learned from their big tech job.
I'd love to see a resource that follows up on people that were laid off from X company, and to see what their offshoots are working on themselves, supporting them where possible.
- I’ve always enjoyed watching what those laid-off employees end up moving onto.
  almost all of the people currently being laid off in tech end up leaving the industry or being unemployed. there are no jobs, and there are massive waves of layoffs everywhere.
  
  Have you got a source on that?
  Some industries in tech are hit extremely hard (i.e. recruitment), but as someone that has spent the last year helping those laid off from Amazon to find roles internally and externally, that's definitely not true in software engineering.

I'm not playing League, I stopped many years ago. But I liked the lore and am sad to see them shut down further collaborations - they made some nice games.
- They made a lot of competitive shit for losers who want to pretend they'll make it to the big leagues one day.
  
  Ruined King was a fun RPG and Bandle Tale looks like a nice cozy game. I'm not interested in their competitive stuff, but they financed some other studios doing good work with their IP.

56 comments