- The company is reportedly looking at making layoffs in esports, HR
- Other tech giants like Microsoft have already announced layoffs
- The reasons for this are many and speculative
Tech companies have been swept by a wave of employee layoffs and it seems Riot Games might also be affected by the trend.
Riot Allegedly Preparing Layoffs
Layoffs in the wider tech sector have been quite prominent in the last few weeks and the gaming industry has not been unscathed. Many big video game companies have been releasing non-trivial amounts of employees, and it seems like Riot is not able to run away from this trend.
According to a recent report by investigative reporter Jacob Wolf, the company is making big layoffs. The aim is allegedly to cut down the number of those working across recruiting, human resources, support, and esports, although the exact numbers are still not clear.
Perhaps Riot Games’ decision should not come as a surprise, considering the tech industry has been plagued by layoffs recently due to various reasons. “Riot’s historically not made many reductions in force in the past,” Wolf wrote, “but it’s in line with a broader trend in tech, gaming, and entertainment as economic hardship begins to affect many corporations.”
Riot Follows the Common Trend
There are many reasons why the wider tech industry is experiencing an employment crisis. Some are blaming the burst of the financial bubble that grew during the two years of Covid pandemic when people were forced to increasingly rely on tech products and services due to the many restrictions. Others say the Russo-Ukrainian war and subsequent disruption of trade brought on because of it and the many sanctions against Russia, have brought massive inflation worldwide.
The reality is probably much more complex and nobody can model the situation properly, but it’s a fact that the tech sector is also experiencing severe difficulties. Riot Games is just yet another big corporation to release many employees in an attempt to save some money.
Riot’s decision comes just after Microsoft announced that it’s laying off 10 000 employees, CNBC reports. “Rising prices have prompted companies to become more careful about technology spending, hurting prospects for the tech stocks that outperformed other market sectors year after year,” the article says.
Some other notable names to go the same route are Alphabet, Amazon, and Salesforce. The CNBC article states that what’s common for all these corporations is the increasing demand for cloud computing and collaboration services as businesses and governments are continually encouraging remote work. With this demand rising, companies need to save expenses for running the servers.
Riot has not yet officially responded to the speculations, but it shouldn’t be surprising if the wave of tech corporations layoffs sweeps across more gaming companies.
