League Of Legends Team Hit By 32 Layoffs, Riot Says The Move Is "Building For The Future" And Totally Isn't About Saving Money

As of the time of this writing, you actually have to work to find out about today's layoffs over at the League of Legends team. Again, as of this exact moment, there is nothing on the game's website or on the MOBA's specific social media accounts. There isn't even a peep about it on the Riot Games social media accounts. While that can certainly change later, yeah, it's tough to find right now.

Then where did news of layoffs come from? A tweet on the X account of Marc Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games. The news comes in a very brief statement that doesn't mention the count of employees laid off, nor does it talk about what departments were most impacted.

The post bears the title "An Update on How We're Evolving League," which could lead a passerby to interpret the post as updates coming to the game. Instead, the post details reductions in the MOBA's team and says the changes aren't actually about saving money. Merrill also expresses confidence in Head of League Studio Andrei van Roon and Executive Producer Paul Bellezza.

"As part of these changes, we’ve made the tough decision to eliminate some roles. 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," reads Merrill's post. "We’re not slowing down work on the game you love. We’re investing heavily in solving today’s challenges faster while also building for the future."

Employees impacted by the job cuts, which include Producer Alex Quach, were given a minimum of six months pay as a severance, annual bonuses, job placement assistance, health insurance, and other support.

What's a little weird to me is the way that Merrill is trying to almost "sell" this as a good thing for the future of League of Legends. Merrill says the cuts obviously make a smaller team now, but the future plans for League involve a larger team than today, as the team is "building for the future" of the game. Merrill also takes an additional tweet to talk about budgets and team size and ensuring that the team has the right people in the right spots to solve the actual problems with the MOBA and not the "wrong problems."

In response to our questions, Sr. Comms Director Joe Hixson confirmed that word will be coming from the League team over the coming weeks on how this may change focuses and Hixson also confirmed the total number of layoffs to be 32 team members, spread across all departments.

We hope that all impacted land on their feet as fast as possible.