Riot Games is allowing staff to leave with 25 percent of their salary amid changes to the long-term direction of the company.
A new blog post from Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent outlines his plan for the next five years, both in terms of company structure and content.
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“Our mission is to be the most player-focused game company in the world,” he says. “And that mission is an aspiration; a thing we know isn’t true yet but could be one day.
“We’ll always make games. But we also increasingly think that’s an outdated way to categorise us. We don’t want to be defined by the things we make, we want to be defined by the people we make them for. Put differently, we prefer to think of ourselves not as a games company but as a gamer’s company.”
That includes expanding the company’s content offering outside of games – including a second season of hit Netflix show Arcane – as well as restructuring and hiring new talent.
As a result, Riot is expanding its ‘Queue Dodge’ system in which new employees can leave in their first six months if unhappy in their role.
Now, that offer has been expanded to the whole company, allowing employees unhappy with the new direction to leave with 25 percent of their base salary, three months of benefits, and full bonuses.
“With our new strategic plan, evolutions to our culture, new compensation and operating models, and new teams in place, we’re confident that we’re putting Riot in the best position to hit our ambitious goals,” Laurent said.
Laurent also acknowledged past sexual harassment controversies at Riot. Recently, the company agreed on a $100m gender discrimination settlement, bringing to a close the class action suit filed by employees back in 2018.
“As we shared with Rioters, three years ago, Riot was at the heart of what became a reckoning in our industry,” Laurent continued. “We’ve come a very long way since then-in our workplace, our processes, and our leadership-and we’ll continue that work every day.