"League of Legends" developer Riot Games, after being embroiled in a massive $100 million discrimination lawsuit (and settling), is reportedly headed in a new direction. And part of their efforts is settling scores via resignation bonuses.
Given as part of their so-called Queue Dodge buyout program, the resignation bonuses are available now to both long-time employees and new hires who want to leave the company if they don't agree with its five-year vision, reports Kotaku.
Anybody who opts out for the entire month of January is entitled to get 25 percent of their annual salary, alongside three months of health benefits. Furthermore, employees who decide to go for the buyout are also eligible to get a possible bonus in March. All they have to do to get the benefits is to quit.
This is a big step up from how the program was first implemented. Back then, long-time employees weren't eligible and were only able to get 10 percent of their annual salary.
The well-known "League of Legends" dev detailed its five-year plan courtesy of CEO Nicolo Laurent, in a blog post on the company's official website. In it, Laurent wrote about Riot's goals for the foreseeable future, as well as its apparent newfound commitment to diversity and inclusion-an issue they had to deal with in 2018.
According to Laurent, they're asking "Rioters" (what Riot calls its employees) to commit to a company "where everyone feels supported" and get productive feedback for their work.
This, as per his blog post, is designed to position the company for success going forward, and not for the purpose of allegedly weeding out those who won't be supporting the five-year plan.
In an interview with Business Insider, Laurent clarified that the plan's intention is to simply ensure that they hire highly motivated people to help the company succeed in the foreseeable future.
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Why The 'League Of Legends' Dev Was Sued
The Riot Games discrimination lawsuit cost $100 million (with $80 million to be paid to the members of the class-action suit) for gender-based discrimination. They settled late last year.
VARIOUS CITIES - MAY 29: In this screengrab, Signage is displayed during the Riot Games Mid-Season Streamathon to Raise Funds for Covid-19 Relief on May 29, 2020 in Various Cities.
According to The Washington Post, the case was filed by former employees who alleged a culture of sexism at the company. This reportedly manifested in unwanted advances towards women at the workplace, to even their hiring and promotion processes which reportedly ignored female candidates for apparently "not being gamer enough."
The scandal was actually unearthed in another exposé by Kotaku the same year the lawsuit was filed. Apparently, the situation was bad enough that any idea originally presented by a woman gets shut down, but is almost immediately accepted if the same exact pitch was presented by a man.
If you notice, this is awfully similar to what Activision Blizzard has been dealing with for the past year. It is an issue that has made the headlines and even prompted game industry bigwigs like Phil Spencer of Xbox to share their thoughts on.
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Written by RJ Pierce
