Game Giant Tencent Buys Out Riot

Chinese game company Tencent has finally purchased what little of League of Legends developer, Riot, they didn’t already own. Tencent has owned a large portion of the MOBA maker for a while now -- ever since they bought a majority stake back in 2011.

Whether this purchase is going to result in big changes at Riot remains to be seen, but current thought is that the company has been doing very well as is and there won’t be too much intervention on the part of Tencent.

What will be changing is the way in which Riot staff are compensated. According to the post on the Riot Games' site announcing the buyout, the purchase is actually part of a shift to a new structure for rewarding and recognizing Riot staff for what they do.

Riot’s approach to compensation has always been about aligning the incentives of the company with Rioters, and also about ensuring that we compensate our talented team of professionals well.

As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we're shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters' contributions - and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games. This allows us to move away from a Riot equity program towards a cash based incentive program that allows Rioters to share in Riot's success. This program comes in addition to our highly competitive salaries, open PTO, learning and development programs, 401K match, subsidized medical plans, and kitchens stocked with snax (poro and otherwise) all full-time Rioters get.

We’re excited about the flexibility of this new approach to comp and believe it’ll help us continue to ensure Riot remains a great place to work.