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Riot Games laying off 11%
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoParent company is Tencent. Good riddance.
- gamblor956 3y agoRiot Games is profitable, so this is about increasing profits. EDIT: As several people have noted, while Riot Games is private, their majority owne (Tencent) is not. According to Tencent's most recent filings, video game revenue is up by double-digits and they reported profits in the past. Unless Riot is claiming that they increased expenses by double-digit % in Q4, they are profitable.
- brianwawok 3y agoWhy wouldn’t they want to be as profitable as possible? They aren’t a charity.
- hakdbha 3y agoThat’s true. Riot games isn’t a charity, but workers and their families certainly are. Clearly we must sacrifice grandma in a glorious email layoff ritual for both the economy and a sweet C-suite end year bonus
- bcrosby95 3y agoAnd snatch the profits end-of-life care companies are supposed to make from grandma? Yeah right. I wonder if being an adult has always felt like, financially, being placed in the "rack" torture device. These days it feels like I'm being stretched from all directions.
- Sebguer 3y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvk_XylEmLo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvk_XylEmLo was a really good overview of how and when this changed, in terms of labor.
- alchemist1e9 3y agoThe vilification of capitalism is so unjustified. Everyone who does it should first listen to Milei’s recent speech [0] and then try to coherently explain which of any of the anti-capitalism policies they support have any empirical evidence to justify them. [0] https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1747868626948907325 https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1747868626948907325
- pxndx 3y agoI vilify capitalism because it makes kids work in coal mines. Is that unjustified?
- alchemist1e9 3y agoCapitalism didn’t invent child labor, but it did help end it. While socialist regimes like the Soviet Union exploited child labor extensively under the guise of equality, it was the economic growth fueled by capitalism that empowered societies to enact labor reforms. The wealth created by free markets enabled the development of laws that protect workers, proving that capitalism is a solution, not the problem.
- hakdbha 3y ago[dead]
- msie 3y agoGotta juice that stock price!
- travem 3y agoI do not believe Riot Games is publicly traded. Tencent do own a large stake however along with their stakes in other gaming companies
- blamecanada 3y ago100% is definitely a large stake
- Rebelgecko 3y agoWhose, Tencent?
- mcmcmc 3y agoGot a source for that? They’re a private company, unless you have access to non-public financial info it seems like you’re just making an assumption.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 3y agoRiot Games is a subsidiary of Tencent.
- mcmcmc 3y agoOkay, and does Tencent publish a P&L for Riot Games? Or are you assuming that if Tencent is profitable that means all of their subsidiaries are profitable? If you read the actual press release you’ll see Riot doubled headcount in the last few years. Highly doubtful their revenue growth kept up with their growing labor costs. Overhiring during the pandemic is a much more likely root cause for layoffs rather than management just trying to juice the profit margin in a market downturn.
- lebean 3y agoUnbelievable! They're profitable!? That's rare these days.
- alchemist1e9 3y agoPlease educate yourself properly and try to understand capitalism the single biggest force behind the improvement in the human condition. Vilification of profits is a disgraceful attitude. https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1747868626948907325 https://x.com/aphysicist/status/1747868626948907325
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoI am amazed by this shameless appropriation of credit for scientific breakthroughs and peddling of a self-congratulating fantasy. Nicola Tesla was a successful capitalist? Isaac Neuton? Leu Paster? What about the guy that invented penicillin? Without capitalists, progress reaches the masses a bit slower. Without scientists, capitalists would still trade sheep, live in huts, and wipe their ass with tree bark.
- alchemist1e9 3y ago> I am amazed by this shameless appropriation of credit for scientific breakthroughs and peddling of a self-congratulating fantasy. I am amazed by the shameless disregard for empirical facts and data and hard historical evidence. I’m not shameless the anti-capitalists are. Here is a book you might be interested in: “Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior” by Schoeck That can help explain this very common destructive human instinct towards collectivism in general. and here is an examination of the most failed idea in human history - socialism: https://iea.org.uk/publications/socialism-the-failed-idea-that-never-dies/ https://iea.org.uk/publications/socialism-the-failed-idea-th... It’s outrageous and shameless to vilify entrepreneurs legitimate and ethical pursuit of profits.
- mcmcmc 3y ago> ethical pursuit of profits. There’s the sticking point. Way too many unethical capitalists, and without strong enforcement mechanisms those bad actors simply concentrate market power and actually break the capitalist system you’re so ready to cream your jeans over. Edit: also after having looked up that book, not sure if some Freudian level psychobabble making sweeping claims about human emotion and motivation is really that great of an argument for unrestrained capitalism.
- anotherhue 3y ago> 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38957024
- izzydata 3y agoI 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.
- leetrout 3y agoSome places make you sign papers you wont reapply to get your severance. Someone explained that in one of the other recent layoff threads.
- mym1990 3y agoSome places would also love to get the people they lay off back, at some point in the future. I believe Salesforce did this. Obviously the company matters and each one will have their own stipulations.
- computator 3y agoWhat is the rationale of promising to not reapply? If a company is hiring again 6 months after some layoffs, what would be wrong will rehiring an ex-employee who was one of those laid off, assuming they are the best candidate for the new job opening?
- msie 3y agoAll it takes is for one of the big firms to go on a big hiring spree and the others will follow.
- wahnfrieden 3y agoEveryone is enjoying the ongoing industry-wide wage suppression too much to want to jump back into rapid talent acquisition just yet
- echelon 3y agoProbably 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-development-expenses/ 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.
- nerdawson 3y agoMultiple references to R&D at the end suggests to me they’re pointing to 174 as a factor.
- hakdbha 3y ago[dead]
- randomsofr 3y agoTheir severance looks good, (6mo minimum, cash bonus, health insurance, computer, etc). Also, kinda weird to being referred as a bet.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoEvery forward looking business strategy decision is a bet.
- mewpmewp2 3y agoEverything in life in a way could be thought of as a bet. It's all a probabilities game. When you travel, you are betting your airplane doesn't crash, you don't get robbed, kidnapped etc.
- hiddencost 3y agoPeople that think that way often don't worry as much about hurting other people.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- t_mann 3y agoCan you share sources for that claim?
- mhh__ 3y agoParticularly attractive/cheap bets along these lines are often massively short vega
- aeturnum 3y agoI don't know how accurate this release is, but on its face it seems very generous.
- eganist 3y agoIt'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.
- wahnfrieden 3y agoAccountable... 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.
- parsimo2010 3y agoBut what about being held accountable for all the “significant investments” that didn’t pan out into the expected revenue? The board may be happy that the layoff cuts cost, but is the board happy with a CEO that has made multiple bad bets?
- echelon 3y ago> is the board happy with a CEO that has made multiple bad bets? Which bad bets?
- parsimo2010 3y agoWhichever are the ones mentioned in the article: “Since 2019, we’ve made a number of big bets across the company … Some of the significant investments we’ve made aren’t paying off the way we expected them to.
- frankish 3y agoRiot Games actually changed CEOs in 2023. https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/announcing-dylan-jadeja-riot-games-next-ceo https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/announcing-dylan-jadeja-ri...
- starkparker 3y ago"To all the Rioters who are being laid off" imagine if a retained CEO's layoff statement resulted in actual rioters
- dbrueck 3y agoFrom 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 3y agoLayoffs are often a polite way of firing deadwood. The laid off people can preserve their dignity and apply for unemployment.
- User23 3y agoYou spelled “people who are bad at office politics” wrong there.
- acdha 3y agoIf 11% of their employees are “deadwood” they have had a spectacular failure of management.
- gurchik 3y agoThe failures of Riot's management have been apparent. Three years ago, the company paid $100 million due to sexual harassment and gender discrimination done at all levels of management including the cofounders and their CEO and COO. Over 150 employees held a walkout. It's not just employees either, on the esports side, the North American players walked out last spring which caused the summer split to be delayed.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agothe player walkout was due to changes in the league made by Riot, specifically that orgs are no longer required to have academy teams (academy teams are the equivalent of college teams, not pro but better than most players). you're overselling that unnecessarily. But the point about the abuse is true and it wasn't just sexual abuse, it was harassment at all levels. for anyone not aware: https://kotaku.com/top-riot-executive-suspended-without-pay-following-inve-1831084598 https://kotaku.com/top-riot-executive-suspended-without-pay-... > Earlier this week, Riot’s CEO sent an e-mail to employees describing the punishment its COO, Scott Gelb, will face after multiple employees alleged that, as a comedy bit, he has repeatedly touched subordinates’ balls or butt or farted in their faces. Several employees tell Kotaku that his punishment—two months of unpaid leave and training—is far from satisfactory. you can't make this shit up, and in fact it's so ridiculous we don't need to mislabel the player walkout, the truth is bad enough by itself.
- latchkey 3y agoReally 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 3y agoPeoples' job skills are not interchangeable.
- mhh__ 3y agoBelow a certain IQ sure. The actual answer here is presumably just that it's legally cleaner — that and internal hiring and so on is apparently logistically almost impossible for a lot of companies (organizations accumulate a lot of scar tissue, flexibility is usually the first thing to go)
- latchkey 3y agoreading what ben said the other day, google was hire slow, fire never and flexibility was the first thing to go. you're pretty on the money in that regard.
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoThat’s what training is for. In Britain the investment by companies into workforce training has fallen off a cliff. Then the same companies complain about shortage of skills. Apparently people should finish university with 10 years of work experience, at their own expense.
- WalterBright 3y agoYou can't really run an engineer through a machine shop course and turn him into an expert machinist, and vice versa. I know how to run machine tools. But turn out precise parts, that eludes me. People specialize into different skills.
- wsc981 3y agoKinda 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?
- Thaxll 3y ago"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.
- kyriefh 3y agobrutal 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 3y ago> 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.
- lamroger 3y agoMan the LA market is getting squeezed
- declan_roberts 3y agoThis 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!
- hnthrowaway0328 3y agoDamn, 6 months is pretty good.
- Mysterise 3y agoI'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 3y agovalorant had layoffs, as did league. what makes you expect cuts on the league game design and balance teams? (not the same thing, btw)
- clarle 3y agoI 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-the-game-2024 https://playruneterra.com/en-us/news/game-updates/state-of-t...
- ulfw 3y ago2024 is just another 2023. Google laying off, followed by everyone else laying off. Supply >>> Demand, barely any hires.
- xyst 3y ago> … 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.
- Guvante 3y agoHonestly there are grey area things you don't think about. Is your employer provided HSA account work or personal?
- xyst 3y agoMy employer contributes to the account. But it’s never tied directly to the e-mail provided by my employer. I can only recall one time where I had to transfer HSA to diff bank but that’s it. Never had to use my work email to login
- madrox 3y agoIt 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.
- xyst 3y agounless it’s my own company, I’ll never mix personal with work emails. I already know these companies archive and search this shit. Last thing I need is my personal emails ending up in some email dump (ie, epic vs Apple)
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y agoI have my own company and still won't mix personal emails in there. Keep em separate. Just for your own sanity but if that's not good enough you could be bought out and they'll want to take your domain. Buy a personal domain for personal stuff and don't run a business off it.
- NelsonMinar 3y agoDylan 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-ceo-nicolo-laurent-dylan-jadeja https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/12/23720971/riot-games-new-c...
- neom 3y agoFirst 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 https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/jobs
- blamecanada 3y ago[flagged]
- blamecanada 3y agoDoes this mean the Seattle campus on Mercer Island is no longer opening?
- greyskull 3y agoIt's opening in Q2. Source: I'm one of the subjects of the article :^)
- blamecanada 3y agoSorry man! I'm sure you'll land on your feet!