Riot Games laying off 11%

[eganist]

It's a decent severance package, honestly.

But, as usual,

> As CEO, I’m accountable for the changes we’re making and where we’re headed in the future. So, I think it’s important for me to share how we got here and how the next few days will work.

I see no indication as to how Dylan will actually be held accountable for the decisions that ultimately led to this.

[missedthecue]

See this comment in every layoff thread. There is actually no reason why being accountable for something means you necessarily face imposed consequences for something. That does not follow. They are not synonyms.

[wilg]

"Accountable" doesn't mean you have to be punished.

[wahnfrieden]

Accountable... to the board, who are loving the efficiencies.

Who's upset with this CEO's actions besides the families affected by it, who have no power individually over anything to hold him accountable? They're his capital resources. Executives aren't accountable to that.

[irjustin]

> I see no indication as to how Dylan will actually be held accountable for the decisions that ultimately led to this.

I believe you're reading the sentence differently than how it's being conveyed.

Dylan is talking about the decision to layoff will improve the company for the future. If it does not then the board should "hold him accountable" and remove him.

You're hoping that Dylan gets punished for being forced to layoff employees.

[WalterBright]

Decent? It's a very generous one.

[readthenotes1]

A more literal interpretation of accountability would mean that they can tell the story, the accounting, of how things happened.

Now if they are responsible, maybe they should be liable for consequences

[shaneprrlt]

All they mean by that is if you want to be mad at someone be mad at him.

[anotherhue]

> Severance Pay — We’ll offer a minimum 6 months of salary,

Well that actually does make it seem like it was something they wanted to avoid.

I might need to eat my hat https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38957024

[izzydata]

I wonder how hard it would be to wait 4-6 months and then attempt to get rehired at Riot again. It seems unlikely that they will be on a total hiring freeze for over 6 months.

[NelsonMinar]

Dylan Jadeja has only been CEO a short while, although he's been at the company in an executive role much longer. He took over after the previous CEO left after years of being tainted by various sexual harassment scandals at the company. https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/12/23720971/riot-games-new-c...

[starkparker]

"To all the Rioters who are being laid off"

imagine if a retained CEO's layoff statement resulted in actual rioters

[neom]

First company I've seen doing a large layoff and also has zero open positions on the careers page.

https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/jobs

[dbrueck]

From the public info at least, this is one of the better examples of how to handle layoffs: generous severance, an apology that sounds sincere, a reasonable amount of info, etc.

To the commenters saying this is just about juicing profits: ok, maybe so, but it seems at least equally plausible that it is what he says it is. Once you've reached the point that you've realized you've made a mistake, it makes sense to act.

[WalterBright]

Layoffs are often a polite way of firing deadwood. The laid off people can preserve their dignity and apply for unemployment.

[latchkey]

Really bums me out when I see people getting laid off and they still list a bunch of open job reqs. They were good enough to empty it out...

Work with us - Open Positions: 0

[WalterBright]

Peoples' job skills are not interchangeable.

[clarle]

I loved Legends of Runeterra, but I knew the writing was on the wall from the very start.

Bummer considering it was one of the best F2P online TCGs out there (and that was probably also the problem, it's such great value for the F2P playerbase and didn't go as hard on monetization other than cosmetics).

LoR State of the Game Update for those that care:

https://playruneterra.com/en-us/news/game-updates/state-of-t...

[randomsofr]

Their severance looks good, (6mo minimum, cash bonus, health insurance, computer, etc). Also, kinda weird to being referred as a bet.

[toomuchtodo]

Every forward looking business strategy decision is a bet.

[xyst]

> … We want to make sure Rioters who are leaving us this week have a bit of time to identify and unwind any personal info or accounts that may be tied to their Riot email addresses.

TIL: people of recent generations use work e-mails for personal usage.

I have only seen this phenomena with older generations when they worked for a single company their entire life until or up to retirement.

[madrox]

It can vary a lot by industry and how much of your identity is wrapped up in your job...or how much prestige the domain after the @ has. I saw it all the time in entertainment. Now that I work at a fintech...not so much.

[mhh__]

Possibly just open source stuff / juniors glued to their work machine too much because they work for a games company during a lockdown (potentially)

[Guvante]

Honestly there are grey area things you don't think about.

Is your employer provided HSA account work or personal?

[msie]

All it takes is for one of the big firms to go on a big hiring spree and the others will follow.

[echelon]

Probably not until IRC 174 is fixed. You can't write your employees off on taxes anymore, but have to amortize them over four years.

https://www.stambaughness.com/blog/amortize-research-and-dev...

Lovely new little wrench in everyone's plans.

Plus many companies hired going into Covid, thinking online was the "new normal". They're returning to a healthier headcount now.

Plus they probably let go those underperforming certain metrics or backing unproductive initiatives. Though that should have no bearing on hiring, it will.

Plus it's no longer ZIRP.

That's a lot of hiring headwind.

[wahnfrieden]

Everyone is enjoying the ongoing industry-wide wage suppression too much to want to jump back into rapid talent acquisition just yet

[aeturnum]

I don't know how accurate this release is, but on its face it seems very generous.

[lamroger]

Man the LA market is getting squeezed

[soramimo]

Who else did layoffs in LA?

[declan_roberts]

This is a great severance! Incredible actually. If my company offered me this package right now I’d take it in a heartbeat and I love my job!

[wsc981]

Kinda hoping their upcoming League of Legends-based MMORPG will finally be one worth playing (after World of Warcraft from Blizzard).

They've created a nice world and lore in League of Legends, so I am having high hopes.

I wonder if any devs will be fired from that team. Probably not?

[Mysterise]

I'm curious to know the layoffs by game. It would be surprising if League of Legends retains all of its game design/balance team, and it'd also be surprising if Valorant lays off any employees.

[kyriefh]

valorant had layoffs, as did league. what makes you expect cuts on the league game design and balance teams? (not the same thing, btw)

[kyriefh]

brutal job market in games right now. layoffs and studio closures all over the place, startups having trouble closing rounds, meanwhile ever more games on the market with 15k released on steam last year

[emestifs]

> startups having trouble closing rounds

Game startups or tech startup in general? I can understand tech startups still feeling the effects of limited venture capital, I'm less familiar with gaming startups and their funding dynamics.

Also, can you share more details about the games industry? There's no much that has made it to the front page of HN regarding how hard the games industry in particular was hit by layoffs, so I don't have a sense of numbers.

[blamecanada]

Does this mean the Seattle campus on Mercer Island is no longer opening?

[greyskull]

It's opening in Q2. Source: I'm one of the subjects of the article :^)

[Thaxll]

"We’re going to hold a Riot WW Town Hall on Thursday to give more context into this moment as well as portfolio changes we’ve made"

Sounds like that some project might be cancelled.

[ulfw]

2024 is just another 2023. Google laying off, followed by everyone else laying off. Supply >>> Demand, barely any hires.