Riot Forge Closes Among Newest Wave of Industry Layoffs at Riot Games

Released in a surprise blog post aimed at Rioters (the name Riot Games has given to their staff), new CEO Dylan Jadeja shares some heartbreaking news. In a news post titled "An Important Update about Riot's Future", the CEO addresses the team that it will be laying off — globally — 530 positions, or just about 11% of the entire workforce.

In the 2,000+-word article, the CEO does his best to explain the situation to everyone, including how staff worldwide would receive e-mails about the state of their position: whether they would be laid off from the company or their job position was rocky. This marks already nearly 4,000 layoffs that have occurred over this year alone — barely done with January.

Dylan Jadeja states that there is no "right way" to lay off employees, though a lot of the internet has been impressed with the package that came with these firings — from a six-month severance check to visa support, a laptop, a cash bonus, and access to the Riot e-mail address until further notice among other things. All staff working in US offices were also asked to leave them and work remotely until a later date to give the other Rioters space to enter and process the situation.

How did it get here? Dylan Jadeja shares that in 2019, Riot Games began its process to become a multi-experience company, what many will remember to be League of Legends' season 9, just one year before the prestigious season 10, which would usher the highly famous Riot Pls: 10th Anniversary Edition. For the unaware, this was when the development company announced many projects were in the pipeline, finally "earning the s" in their name and developing more titles.

After that, the team seems to have grown too much (nearly doubling, according to the post), and Riot Games began the development of many other experiences, like Wild Rift, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and even their Riot Forge publisher. Now, five years after this momentous occasion for the company, the business is at risk with no room for experimentation or failure; Dylan Jadeja calls this a "vital" part of being a creative company.

This will affect more than just the hundreds of Rioters losing their jobs, however — the lengthy post mentions that Legends of Runeterra has failed to become a sustainable project, that the team is being reduced, and the game is focusing on the "Path of Champions" PvE mode moving forward. Likewise, the publishing team, Riot Forge, is officially being sunset after the release of Bandle Tale, just six games after it was established, to focus on internal projects.

The future of Riot Forge remains rocky, however, as Dylan Jadeja says that the door to single-player experiences won't be closed entirely — if the right project comes along, Riot Games is willing to work with it. But, in his words, "we would want it to look pretty different in the future".

What remains of Riot Games will focus on their existing, successful projects: League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, and research & development. This doesn't mean that Riot Games will stop releasing games, but for the future of Riot Forge, they will no longer be working with outside publishers for the time being.

Finally, in February, we will hear more about their portfolio and how 2024 will look with the upcoming RiotNow, which will be a product-focused discussion of the plans for players and products that are upcoming in the company.