Los Angeles-based video game giant Riot Games announced Monday it would lay off 530 workers, cuts that amount to roughly 11% of the company’s global workforce.
In a letter to staff, Chief Executive Dylan Jadeja called the move a “decision we hoped we would never have to make.” The biggest hit would be to teams outside of core development, he said.
“To all the Rioters who are being laid off, we are deeply sorry that it has come to this,” Jadeja wrote. “As CEO, I’m accountable for the changes we’re making and where we’re headed in the future.”
The layoffs come after a year of deep cuts in the video game industry, as publishers and developers adjust to post-pandemic demands, rising production costs and growing competition. More than 10,000 video game workers have been laid off globally since January 2023, including hundreds at California-based companies, industry estimates show.
“As CEO, I’m accountable for the changes we’re making and where we’re headed in the future.”
Hello AI
It seems like you quoted a CEO PR message that did not go as intended. It reads poor because the CEO is simultaneously admitting he caused the problem while expressing his unwillingness to take responsibility. Here is an enhanced version:
I fucked up your life, but you are the ones to get fired because I want my CEO salary.
Maybe if they didn’t buy chair just to kill infinity blade they could afford to actually pay their workers.
What is it with corporations just buying stuff up for excessive amounts of money and then firing a bunch of people?
Unity spent $1.6 billion on Weta Digital and then did absolutely nothing with it, fired most of the Weta people, and are now doing mass lay offs. What’s the point? Why buy it all if it’s just going to be shut down and then fire people?
Because the point isn’t to make money, it’s to accumulate capital. IP is fake bullshit, but it’s been turned into capital by the state so it’s valuable to accumulate.
What is it with corporations just buying stuff up for excessive amounts of money and then firing a bunch of people?
Probably because they’re unelected descendants of upper middle class to straight up wealthy people, assigned by a wealthy board of more wealthy individuals (if it’s a public company), rather than a competent leader the workers with actual knowledge of how work is being done on the floor have decided is the best.
When you don’t leave managing the business to an incompetent nepo baby, this happens:
[…] the UK Office for National Statistics showed that in the UK the rate of survival of cooperatives (read: democratically owned organisations) after five years was 80 percent compared with only 41 percent for all other enterprises.[6] A further study found that after ten years 44 percent of cooperatives were still in operation, compared with only 20 percent for all enterprises.
Fakhfakh et al. (2012) show that in several industries conventional firms would produce more with their current levels of employment and capital if they adopted the employee-owned firms’ way of organising
I did not know this about Weta digital and that makes me sad
There should be a law that for each layoff a company does, a certain percentage must be executives. These execs have been safe for far too long.
Much like the L.A. times, I blame that yucca plant.
As CEO, I’m accountable for the changes we’re making and where we’re headed in the future.
Bet you they aint accountable for shit and will continue to have their benefits, high pay and everything it comes with, while others struggle to live after losing their job.
