Riot Games employees walk out over workplace harassment lawsuits

More than 150 workers at the developer's Los Angeles HQ join protest - the largest such walkout in video game industry history

Employees of Riot Games, makers of popular online battle video game League of Legends, staged a mass walkout on Monday to protest against the company's handling of lawsuits brought against it alleging workplace sexism and misconduct. It is the largest such walkout in video game industry history.

Around 150 workers at Riot's Los Angeles headquarters participated in the protest, according to a report by video games website Kotaku, which also broke allegations of a sexist and often hostile work environment from dozens of employees in an investigation last year. They were protesting against Riot's policy of forced arbitration, which strong-arms employees into company-led negotiations in the event of lawsuits, removing the right to a jury or judge-led verdict. Google recently ended forced arbitration entirely in response to protests involving 20,000 employees.