Ma ”Pony” Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd., speaks during the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Forum in Hong Kong, China, Tuesday, June 20, 2017. In an unusual move , Ma chose to convene a summit of government academics and business leaders in Hong Kong, days before the 20th anniversary of his return to China.
Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images
By Tencent The Riot Games unit said Monday it is cutting 11 percent of its workforce, or about 530 jobs, and scaling back its division that publishes games from small developers.
“We’re changing some of the bets we’ve made and changing the way we work across the company to focus and move us toward a more sustainable future,” Riot CEO Dylan Jadeja told employees in a letter published in the blog.
The staff cuts follow job cuts across the media and technology world in recent weeks and continue a trend from last year, when companies went into belt-tightening mode to respond to tougher economic conditions. Amazon and Google is among the tech companies that have confirmed layoffs so far in 2024.
Riot, publisher of the League of Legends and Valorant video games, said it will reduce the number of people for its 2020 title Legends of Runeterra.
“We have been subsidizing development costs on LoR through our other games, but at this point, this is not a viable option,” wrote Jadeja, who spent six years as Riot’s president before taking over from Nicolo Laurent as CEO in September. .
Eric Shen will become the executive producer of Legends of Runeterra, replacing Dave Guskin, according to a suspension by Guskin, who said he will be working on other Riot games.
Riot is also pulling out of its Forge division, which publishes games from indie developers.
“We’re proud of what we’ve done together to bring these stories to life, but it’s time to refocus our efforts on the ambitious projects underway internally at Riot,” Jadeja wrote in the letter.
China-based Tencent invested in Riot Games in 2011 and became its sole owner four years later. Riot is headquartered in Los Angeles.
when Microsoft announced its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard in 2022, the software company said the deal would make it the world’s third-largest gaming company, behind Tencent and Sony. Last year Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs as it faced slowing revenue growth.
Tencent, which also owns the widely used WeChat app in China, has faced challenges of late. It has seen revenue grow in single digits or decline for the past seven quarters after a growth spurt during the pandemic. In September, Tencent-backed Epic Games was announced was cutting 16% of its staff. Shares fell 12% in late December after China announced new rules designed to curb excessive gambling.
Pony Ma, Tencent’s co-founder and CEO, told analysts in November that the company was moving away from “less scalable businesses” and stepping up investment in artificial intelligence.
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