Last week, Riot Games laid off 530 employees. In the announcement, it was stated that the focus would be more on the 4 major games. However, some employees responsible for new and upcoming content in League of Legends were also let go.
As Riot announced last week, the company will lay off 530 employees. As part of this, smaller projects like Riot Forge will also be shut down. In the statement from Riot, it was said that the focus would be on the 4 major games. These include Wild Rift, Valorant, TFT, and LoL.
However, as can be inferred from X.com and laid-off employees, LoL will also suffer under the layoffs. As Riot Lexical, who is responsible for Product Management for LoL Champions, informs on their X account, there is uncertainty regarding the planning of future content and the timelines.
I only regret that I couldn’t do more.
In her tweet, she confirms that, at least for now, the release of the new champion Smolder and the rework of Skarner will not be affected by the current situation. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that there will be some changes to the release structure and also to announced updates. There is no new roadmap for the year and beyond yet.
Stephen Auker, known as Riot Raptorr, is among the laid-off employees. He worked on Smolder and was responsible for the visual update of Shyvanna. He confirmed his layoff on X.com.
Despite the announcement that Smolder and Skarner will be released as normal, Riot Llama was also laid off. He was responsible for K’Sante, as well as for Smolder and the new Skarner. On X.com, he posted: I only regret that I couldn’t do more.
There is currently no official statement from Riot on how the layoffs will influence the future of LoL.
It is still unclear how the layoffs will specifically affect the release timelines and new content for LoL. However, seeing that important designers for new champions have been laid off, it can be assumed that there will be some changes to the rhythm of new champions and reworks. Although Legends of Runterra has not been canceled, the future of the card game still seems uncertain: The future of a spin-off to LoL looks grim: “We love the game, but …”
