Riot Games co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill has posted an update about how the studio is “evolving” League of Legends and making it a futureproof experience – and it involves laying off dozens of the MOBA’s developers.
While League of Legends continues to be one of the biggest free PC games around, an article penned by Merrill says that it is restructuring the LoL team “to make sure we can keep improving the League experience now and for the long-term.” As the MOBA heads towards its “next phase,” Riot has seen it fit to cut some roles it believes no longer contribute towards the game’s health and growth.
“This isn’t about reducing headcount to save money – it’s about making sure we have the right expertise so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond,” Merrill says. “While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League.”
While Merrill’s original post did not state the number of roles eliminated, Riot has confirmed in a statement to GI.biz that a total of 32 positions have been cut. 27 of these are from its League of Legends team, and the other five are from its wider publishing teams. This follows on from much larger layoffs the company made in January 2024.
In a follow up to his post, Merrill further elaborates on why it is making these redundancies and why it will still eventually increase the LoL team in size, despite making cuts right now.
“Success isn’t about throwing more people or money at a challenge. We’ve seen small teams at Riot (and elsewhere) build incredible things, while large teams (both at Riot and elsewhere) miss the mark.
“While the League team will ultimately be larger after these changes, what matters more than size is having the right team, right priorities, and a sustainable approach to delivering what players need. If we’re solving the wrong problems, more resources won’t fix it. It’s about building smarter and healthier, not just bigger.” You can read Merrill’s full article here.
While the optics of announcing layoffs in a post about “evolving” a game are a bit bleak, so too is the timing. Of course, there’s never a good time to deliver such news, but this month sees League of Legends celebrate its 15th anniversary. LoL Worlds is also ongoing throughout October. Revealing that developers are being let go during what should be an exciting, celebratory time for the game is incredibly unfortunate.
As mentioned, this is the second round of layoffs Riot has publicly announced this year, although on a much smaller scale. The cuts in January saw over 500 roles cut across multiple teams and projects, and even resulted in the full closure of Riot’s indie publishing arm, Riot Forge.