Riot’s Decision to Slash League of Legends Dev Team May Not Be for Efficiency But for Corporate Greed

For League of Legends‘ 15th anniversary, many people were hoping for something big from Riot—new reveals, updates, or even insight into Riot’s broader plans for the beloved franchise. Instead, what they’ve got so far can essentially be boiled down to a few in-game rewards and a trip down memory lane, leaving many feeling rather underwhelmed.

But Riot really said, “Wait, there’s one more surprise for ya, kids!” and decided to hit a new low, laying off several good folks from the League of Legends dev team, all while framing it as a move to “evolve” the game. In an industry already rife with lay-offs, the executives’ attempts to downplay its cuts only adds insult to injury.

Now, look, the company is no stranger to lay-offs at this point—only earlier this year, the higher-ups at Riot slashed nearly 11% of its workforce and axed its Riot Forge Label when it couldn’t hit the expected stride. Despite ambitious promises, the company seems unable to follow through on its own grand plans.

Unfortunately, however, lay-offs are back at Riot, allegedly targeting 27 members of the team responsible for one of the most profitable games in the world, League of Legends. This time, however, the company has somehow managed to handle it even worse than before.

In a statement on X titled “An Update on How We’re Evolving League,” Marc Merrill tried to justify the lay-offs, claiming they were about finding the right “expertise” rather than cost-cutting. Seriously? Laying off already experienced people to find some expertise?

While we’re on the subject of team size, I want to talk a little about both size and budget, and why they aren’t the right way to measure whether a team will be successful. We’ve definitely been memed in the past for talking about budgets, and rightly so. Success isn’t about…

— Tryndamere (@MarcMerrill) October 15, 2024

The reasoning, obviously enough, comes off as laughably tone-deaf to anyone paying attention. Now, sure, the severance package is at least a decent one, but let’s not forget that it’s the absolute bare minimum that any organization could offer to its people.

Not to mention, the real issue here is how Merrill’s message tries to mask the harsh reality: Riot has been struggling a lot to meet its lofty goals with the League of Legends IP, and cutting jobs is the only way it can manage its costs (read: greed).

>Sell Recolours for 500$
>Make millions off of this
>Still fire people

lol, as they say

— TwitchyAnimation (@FishPrison) October 15, 2024

Thankfully, the community isn’t buying this PR language either, with most able to see through thinly veiled attempts to justify the lay-offs.

“We’re not slowing down, we’re going faster!” Corporate talk for “cutting costs by laying off hourly employees and overworking people who are salaried that are willing to be *a team player*”

— Xachary (@XacharyGG) October 15, 2024

Plus, despite the game’s massive success, Riot’s constant reliance on aggressive monetization has left many wondering if the game’s player count is sustaining revenue the way it once did.

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At the end of the day, though, and like we said in the header, it’s just a grim situation all around, especially for the game’s 15th anniversary, with Riot just proving itself as a company that’s unable to deliver on its vision.

Amidst all the lay-offs, the real bugger is that anyone can tell what Riot’s real game plan might be. These job cuts might be framed as efficiency-driven in Marc’s statement, but we all know that “efficiency” is just a way to cut costs in whatever way possible.

In fact, it’s hard not to imagine the next steps: outsourcing more jobs, relying heavily on contractors for as cheap as possible, and pushing salaried employees into crunch time.

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What’s even more frustrating, as the Reddit user also points out, is that Riot’s player base, many of whom are completely devoted to League, will likely continue to support the game and the IP’s larger projects regardless of any potential drops in quality. The game is already broken in more ways than one, and now, it doesn’t feel like it’ll change any time soon.

League is so screwed, the game has been terrible lately with even more splits so ranked is a chore. Splits never should’ve been a thing to begin with, maybe 1 at most.

The client messes up and has the most horrible performance I’ve ever seen. Constant stuttering, freezing, queue…

— Powdered Toast Man (@arvay61) October 15, 2024

Most importantly, however, this devotion to the game only perpetuates Riot’s arrogance, allowing them to believe they can cut costs without facing any significant consequences.

Only time will tell whether that changes soon. For now, all we know is that we’re entering a much darker time for the industry as a whole, one where even job cuts can be spun as a positive for the company.

With all that said, what are your thoughts on these lay-offs? Do you think Marc is in the wrong here by portraying the job cuts in such a positive light? Let us know in the comments below!