TLDR: Riot is downscaling. The severance package is great but it’s another round of layoffs in the industry.
This will also majorly affect Legends of Runeterra. They’re putting the game on life support it seems, and will focus on the PvE mode.
They’re also shutting down Riot Forge, their collaboration with other studios to make smaller games with their IP.
I don’t think there will ever be any CEO that takes a pay cut over doing layoffs.
Satoru Iwata and the Wii U is the single instance I can think of.
I remember reading in 2020 the CEOs of Toyota and Columbia sportswear both reduced their salary so they wouldn’t immediately have to lay people off like most companies were doing.
Iirc the Nintendo cceos did so they wouldn’t have to fire people a handful of years ago. Not sure how often that happens though.