LoL: Huge Layoff At Riot Games
Riot Games has just recently laid off around 11% of their workforce, which is around 530 employees. A few of those unfortunate were working on our favorite game. Let's see how these changes could impact League of Legends.
Riot has put out a statement in which they stated that they are going to focus more on their core live games. Luckily, League of Legends is a pretty popular game and along with Valorant, Wild Rift and TFT we can expect a few more years if not decades of support. They are going to focus even more on new Events, Modes and esport.
LoL: What Does That Mean For League of Legends?
Unfortunately, the lay-offs have still affected some of the more important Rioters when it comes to the League's History.
Lore Writers like Graham McNeil have been let go. He is a professional writer and has written many novels for the Warhammer 40K universe. He also contributed a huge amount to the League of Legends Lore. McNeil has almost written everything about Darkins and Shurima and was heavily involved in the Demacia Lore as well.
Riot Games has also laid off Rob Rosa/Riot KingCobra who was the Game Producer. He was heavily involved in the Aurelion Sol and Swain Rework and is known for being very close to the community and listening to it. It's very sad to see such talented and passionate workers leave.
The Creative Producer for the K/DA and Hearsteel Band Samii has also been let go, which is incredibly sad. It was genuinely some of the best content Riot has ever released. It is also not a good sign for the future that Riot Games has let go a lot (and I mean A LOT) of talented artists. This combined with the recent rise of AI Art and the AI Drama of Wild Rift might be a sign that we can and should expect more AI Art in the future, as it is faster to create and very cheap.
Personally, I am quite happy that League will not be as heavily affected, but I am also sad because LoR could have been a much greater game if Riot gave it a bit more marketing. I wish all the laid off Workers best of luck in their future endeavors. I'm sure we will see them again in other game studios.
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