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Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

riotgames.com

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Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#121

Post by meheleventyone »

akira2501 wrote: post #94
gamblor956 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tencent lost a lot of value because China decided to crack down on a number of Asian business video game business models last year, and this directly affected a large portion of Tencent's portfolio. However, according to their Q3 filings (Q4 has not been filed yet), their video game revenue is actually up and they specifically cite the performance of Valorant. So the issue for Tencent wasn't Riot Games, it was its Ch…

More recent news shows that the "government official" in charge of introducing this new rule was fired and the rulemaking abandoned. Their total value loss has occurred solidly throughout 2023. No part of the year was particularly good for them, and the regulator news doesn't seem to have had any unique impact, at least looking at their OTC chart.

They fired the person that announced the rule not any of the people that actually came up with it! AFAIK whilst there’s going to be changes the rules will be along similar lines.

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#122

Post by biotopia »

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #15

Minimum six months severance pay + healthcare + cash bonus. That is incredibly generous all things considered.

The layoff announcement mentioned that the 11% staff laid off is global. It's possible a lot of people laid off are actually in China, since Tencent owns 100% of Riot Games. There is a trend for Chinese companies to not hire workers that are over 35 years old, so some of these employees might be unemployed for a long time. Also, Chinese economy is in the crapper right now.

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#123

Post by BlackjackCF »

danielodievich wrote: post #93

Meanwhile, their Seattle area office that they purchased for $114M in 2021 https://www.mi-reporter.com/news/riot-games-stands-in-the-pe... to put in ~400 people is almost done https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/riot-seattle-office-design... and from what I can see through the windows, it's looking really nice.

I’m surprised that they decided to move forward with the project in 2021 due to COVID.

Were they just too far in with contracts at that point to duck out?

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#124

Post by piva00 »

justin66 wrote: post #117
atlas_hugged wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name and shame please.

One week per year of service is so standard, no company is going to be shamed by it. That doesn't mean it's not lame.

Is so standard in the USA, it's not the standard in any other place on Earth I worked at (Brazil, USA, Sweden). Even in Brazil you'd get at least a few months of severance.

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#125

Post by BlackjackCF »

mdorazio wrote: post #75
stevage wrote: post #73

> This isn’t to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number—it’s a necessity. They don't seem to explain in any way why it's a necessity.

I read that as they have negative cash flow and need to fix it ASAP.

I wonder if it actually had to do more with esports pulling back quite a bit this last year. Riot was leaning into that pretty hard for League. That had to factor in for a large chunk of the headcount for layoffs.

I just can’t imagine they’re cash flow negative given how popular League and Valorant are, but maybe they’re seeing enough of a dip in their numbers that they’re trending in that direction.

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#126

Post by gambiting »

piva00 wrote: post #124
justin66 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One week per year of service is so standard, no company is going to be shamed by it. That doesn't mean it's not lame.

Is so standard in the USA , it's not the standard in any other place on Earth I worked at (Brazil, USA, Sweden). Even in Brazil you'd get at least a few months of severance.

That's literally all you get in the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/redundancy-pay

To quote:

"half a week’s pay for each full year you were under 22

one week’s pay for each full year you were 22 or older, but under 41

one and half week’s pay for each full year you were 41 or older

Length of service is capped at 20 years."

And also it's pretty shit because it's capped, so for most software devs it won't be anywhere near what their actual salary was:

"If you were made redundant on or after 6 April 2023, your weekly pay is capped at £643 and the maximum statutory redundancy pay you can get is £19,290. "

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#127

Post by gambiting »

qqqwerty wrote: post #76
OnionBlender wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably don't want the bad PR from doing layoffs before Christmas.

FWIW, severance is usually a lump sum, so it absolutely benefits the employees to wait until the new year because the severance will likely get taxed at a lower tax bracket.

Doesn't tax year run April to April where you live? That's the case in the UK, so it would have made absolutely no difference to how it's taxed.

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#128

Post by Zetobal »

BlackjackCF wrote: post #123
danielodievich wrote: post #93

Meanwhile, their Seattle area office that they purchased for $114M in 2021 https://www.mi-reporter.com/news/riot-games-stands-in-the-pe... to put in ~400 people is almost done https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/riot-seattle-office-design... and from what I can see through the windows, it's looking really nice.

I’m surprised that they decided to move forward with the project in 2021 due to COVID. Were they just too far in with contracts at that point to duck out?

It's office space literally everyone dipped into that pool of free money.

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#129

Post by firesteelrain »

rcbdev wrote: post #115
advael wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unemployment never pays your full salary, and how much it even scales with your salary caps at a number much lower than is relevant for about the top 75% of software engineers in most states. Assuming you're not straight up lying, then the people you talked to likely derived considerable security from their savings and future job prospects, or possibly even other exogenous factors such as supportive families or incom…

Or they were unmortgaged home owners already - You really don't need that much money to just keep on living for a few months at that point.

And how many are really at that point if they are not much older?

Re: Changes at Riot Games and the road ahead

#130

Post by dabber »

d4mi3n wrote: post #87
atlas_hugged wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name and shame please.

Shopify is my guess; I was part of that layoff and the timing lines up. They had those exact terms and paid them out in addition to WARN act minimums contingent on signing of a severance agreement. I had the same offer but declined due to issues I had with the severance agreement.

> I had the same offer but declined due to issues I had with the severance agreement.

Is it too prying to ask what that means in terms of your outcome? Idk what the WARN act is, and I understand that my question may be neive or too personal to post an answer to publicly, but I'm curious what the alternative to signing is/was and if the answer is generally applicable or specific to the company/agreement.

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