Riot Games gives PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X to full-time employees

Riot Games is ending its rather turbulent 2020 by gifting its full-time staff with a free next-gen console where staffers can can choose from the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X -- and even the Nintendo Switch.

Full-time staff at Riot Games can choose between the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X or Nintendo Switch -- as well as a one-time 10% bonus. Not just that, but they'll get an additional 2.5% for every year of service at Riot Games since 2017 -- extended to all full-time staff in 2021 on top of their annual bonuses.

A new work schedule is also being deployed among the mayhem of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will ease out staffers' weeks with added breaks through 2021. Riot wants to side-step the insane crunches in the industry, and burnout of its staff -- which is where the new consoles come into play.

Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent penned a new blog post on the official Riot website, where Laurent explained: "I don't want to linger on how difficult a year this has been. We all know it has been like no other. One positive I want to take from the hardships of this year, however, is that this pandemic reminded us how important our approach to work is. While players constantly fuel our passion to execute with excellence, we need a well-rested, committed team in order to deliver meaningful, lasting experiences".

"In past years, we've taken time in December to pause the patches and take a break at the end of the year. We've never said much about this break, but we've come to realize that it's important to be more transparent around how we work and what we're doing to create an environment where we can thrive together. So, as we wrap up 2020, we wanted to share some of what worked this year that we're going to continue in the future, including how we're going to approach distributed work in the long term".

You can read the entire Helping Rioters Unplug and Recharge blog post here.