Tencent became the outright owner of Riot Games in 2015. Credit: StreetVJ/Shutterstock.

Riot Games, a unit of Tencent, has decided to cut nearly 530 jobs or 11% of its workforce as part of its cost cutting drive.  

The layoffs at Riot Games, the publisher behind popular titles such as League of Legends and Valorant, come amidst a wave of job cuts across the technology industry.  

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Notable companies such as Amazon and Google have also confirmed layoffs in 2024. 

In a blog post, Riot CEO Dylan Jadeja said: “We are changing some of the bets we have made and shifting how we work across the company to create focus and move us toward a more sustainable future.  

“This decision means we are eliminating about 530 roles globally, which represents around 11% of our workforce, with the biggest impact to teams outside of core development.” 

Riot Games has specifically mentioned reducing headcount for its Legends of Runeterra (LoR) game, released in 2020, and is pulling back on its Forge division, responsible for publishing titles from independent developers. 

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“We have been subsidising the cost of development on LoR through our other games, but at this point, that is just not a viable option. So, we are reducing the size of the team and shifting our focus to the ‘Path of Champions’ PvE game mode,” Jadeja said. 

“In addition, we are sunsetting Riot Forge after the upcoming release of Bandle Tale. Forge has been our collaboration with external studios to develop smaller scale games in our IP,” he added. 

Tencent, the China-based technology conglomerate that became the outright owner of Riot Games in 2015, has faced its own set of challenges. 

According to CNBC, Tencent has experienced revenue growth in the single digits or declines for seven consecutive quarters following a surge during the pandemic.  

In a related development, Tencent-backed Epic Games reduced its staff by 16% in September 2023.