Riot Games has been in the headlines a lot recently – for reasons both good and bad. The MOBA giant had their community frustrated over the lack of World Championship dates – now online – while, most interestingly of all, there’s been talk of a second title in the works. You might expect a dev as big as Riot to already have multiple games under its belt by now, yet that’s not the case. League of Legends, their shot to success, remains the only IP put out under Riot’s guidance in the company’s lifespan. For now.
A Decade of Growth
League of Legends was released into beta testing in 2009. Back then, it was a blurry, buggy mess, but the premise was sound: an aesthetic take on the multiplayer arena mods originally put together by the Warcraft 3 community. It wasn’t long before League, this Dota successor and industry phenomenon, exploded in popularity and number. It was free to play. It was fast. It was fun. New updates and characters came out monthly, if not bi-weekly, and the potato-yet-pleasing graphics could run on almost any cardboard machine. The competitive scene was alive and well from the very start too, that’s certainly worth mentioning, but it wasn’t until Asia got involved that things really took off.
Riot got picked up by Tencent, current owner and general global games company. They put their profit and funding to good use, improving the game, establishing a wider and regular competitive scene worldwide. Esports existed long before Riot, but it was League that drew in the masses, the casual gamers, the everyone to weekly North American or European streams. World Championships became a regular event soon enough, with this year’s 2018 competition destined for Korea itself. Esports, and League, in particular, now rival real-world sporting competition, in every aspect, from audience numbers on Twitch to winnings to bets and wagers. Online bookmakers like Betway offer stats and odds on games, streaming platforms and caster desks inform and commentate; the game is quite simply a phenomenon in terms of scope and success. It’s no wonder Riot has continued to focus on their singular title, then, nurturing its growth and ensuring long-term profit. For a couple of years, League was the online gaming top dog without dispute, likely because of this ethos.
But all that’s beginning to change.
Riot Plateau
Make no mistake, League is still a massive player in gaming and Esports. It’s still a top dog – just an older, slower, grizzled one. Like all games, League gains and loses players over time. Unfortunately, the steep learning curve and often frustrating ranked games have Riot on a downward trend, at least recently. The good times can’t last forever. So what next? Riot ‘Ghostcrawler’ might be the answer to that question. Once a World of Warcraft developer and more recently an employee of Riot Games, Ghostcrawler is reported to be part of the team heading up Riot’s next project. What exactly said project is, however, remains a mystery.
“The reality at Riot is that we are exploring lots of games,” said founder Marc Merrill when questioned by Variety. “We have a whole bunch of RND teams exploring different opportunities.” This statement came after an online tweet by Merrill entailing the simple query to fans, “Should we build an MMO?” Such a question unsurprisingly ignited fierce debate and intrigue within the Riot fanbase. “In our view the ‘s’ in Riot Games is aspirational,” expanded Merrill. Clearly, Riot wants to expand its repertoire. The question is, will it succeed, and in what direction?
Going Forwards with the Fist
Current major competition in gaming includes Fortnite, the stylized battle royale, Overwatch, WoW as always… Gaming is a wide industry, but its individual genres and audiences are niche. Perhaps the next Riot game will be an MMO – perhaps it could be a Bethesda-style RPG! One thing’s for sure, they have the talent and they have the funding. Whatever the title, it will be paramount to their success going forwards: a statement for the future and the company as a whole.
I'm a published author and proud US Army veteran who happens to be a gamer, so I decided to combine the two and love every minute of it! Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments and I'll be sure to get back to you.
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