Rumours have been circulating about a potential League of Legends MMORPG ever since Marc Merrill teased the possibility on Twitter, but confirmation of new games in development only came recently, after alleged disputes with Tencent.
Riot Games' MOBA League of Legends has been steadily losing its player base and it was evident for a while now, although no official confirmation ever came. It was eventually confirmed by The Information, a news website that published an article quoting over 40 employees, past and present, of Riot Games, including co-founders Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck, as well as Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent.
The decline caused friction between Riot Games and Tencent apparently, with the latter first attempting to get Riot to make League of Legends for mobile devices. Upon Riot's refusal, Tencent developed their own mobile rip-off, Wangzhe Rongyao, which would later come to be known as Arena of Valor in English speaking world.
It quickly became a massive cash cow and Tencent eventually started focusing on it, along with its newfound Battle Royale successes - PUBG and Fortnite. The article caught more attention once it was reported by Dot Esports, which prompted Riot Games to send an to them.
According to it, League of Legends numbers are indeed "down from their peak", although the game is still "one of the most-played games in the world". Riot Games seem to be content with the numbers, as "League is doing incredibly well by any measure except its own very high watermark".
Riot's response also claims that their relationship with Tencent "is the best it's ever been", but it has also confirmed friction between Riot and their parent company when Arena of Valor came to be as it mentioned "the Arena of Valor situation wasn't great", which is pretty much the PR way of saying "we butted heads".
The situation seems to be fixed now, but the final statement in that response is where the juicy news bit is - Riot Games stated they are working together with Tencent "toward an exciting future, both for League and [Riot's] upcoming games". The note ended with a confirmation that it's indeed multiple games that are in development, by stating "yes - 's'".
Riot Games
It wouldn't mean much ordinarily, but "s" in Riot Games has been a long time running gag in League of Legends community considering they only ever released one game. Technically there are tiny spin-offs from League of Legends such as Cho'Gath Eats the World, but these were only limited-time short pixel art exhibitions.
Hopefully, the future games will not be of that nature and a full fledged game will be there to appease hungry fans. Then again, I would rather have another pixel art exhibition than League of Royale. This is confusing.
League of Legends - showcase of several champion splash arts
- Image: 1 / 10
