Riot Games is the latest tech company to join in on the latest wave of layoffs plaguing the industry. First spotted by esports reporter Jacob Wolf and later confirmed by Riot themselves, the game developer confirmed the elimination of 46 jobs in a round of job cuts across several departments. When questioned by Video Games Chronicle (VGC), Riot provided a statement elaborating the serious consideration they made while making these “necessary” cuts.

“Riot Games implemented strategic shifts within a few teams to sharpen our focus in a number of areas,” said Riot. “With these shifts, certain roles were eliminated, impacting a total of 46 Rioters,”

“This is part of our normal course of our business: We periodically make changes to our structure and our teams based on what we believe will allow us to deliver the best content and experiences for players.

“We never make these decisions lightly and will always start from a place of wanting to retain Rioters and have them focus on our highest priorities. While that’s not always possible, it’s our primary goal.”

Wolf noted that while Riot hasn’t been known for making cuts to its workforce in the past, layoffs have become a recent ongoing trend within the tech, gaming and entertainment industries due to the economy.

Riot Games is making layoffs, which started earlier today, multiple people have told me.

Size and scope are unclear at the moment, so far I’ve heard of effects across recruiting & human resources, support and esports. Will do more reporting in the morning for the newsletter.

— Jacob Wolf (@JacobWolf) January 19, 2023

Many tech companies see these layoffs as necessary however, it hasn’t stopped people within and outside of the community from criticizing their choices. Microsoft was hit the hardest after its announcement to lay off around 10,000 of its employees due to poor economic conditions stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. 343 Industries, developers of Halo Infinite, were one of the few Xbox studios hit by the layoffs. This caused many of its former employees to take to Twitter criticizing the cuts due to poor leadership from the developer’s management.