Riot Games has announced a wave of layoffs that will impact the League of Legends development team, although co-founder Marc Merrill says the team will "eventually be even larger than it is today".
In a message on X (formerly Twitter), Merrill says the "tough decision" to lay off "some roles" among the League of Legends team was made in order to make "sure we have the right expertise so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond".
Merrill doesn't specify how many team members are being laid off, nor does he say which departments will be most affected by the layoffs, but he does say that those being laid off will be supported by "a minimum of six months' pay, annual bonus, job placement assistance, health coverage, and more".
Merrill goes on to say that "team effectiveness is more important than team size", but eventually, the League of Legends team will grow in size "as we develop the next phase of League".
In a followup message, he says that team size and budget "aren't the right way to measure whether a team will be successful", and that "having the right team, right priorities, and a sustainable approach" is more important than simply having a large team.
I'm sure that won't come as much consolation to the folks who are being laid off today, and the comments about the team eventually being bigger are a little strange in light of said layoffs, but we'll have to wait and see what happens next.
These aren't the first Riot Games layoffs this year. Back in January, Riot announced it was laying off over 500 employees and shutting down its Riot Forge division, which was responsible for publishing the likes of Ruined King and Song of Nunu.
Despite these layoffs, there's still plenty in the works for League of Legends and Riot Games as a whole. A new League fighting game spinoff, 2XKO, is currently in the works, and League itself is still getting new champions, including Arcane's Ambessa, who's on the way sometime soon.
