Riot MMO Release Date

Since its release in 2009, LoL has been taking over all media. Its popularity spawned many spin-off games, mobile versions, collectible card games, and more. Other than that, it has inspired comic books, literature, music videos, and a successful Netflix show. There’s barely anything it hasn’t dipped its finger (or hand) into, but Riot found a big one.

They plan to make an MMO using the same setting as League of Legends, a la World of Warcraft. An RTS (which inspired the MOBA genre) game came first before the MMO. If it follows in the footsteps of WoW, then a Runeterra MMO will undoubtedly be a hit.

The Setting

Runeterra is a beautiful place despite all the messed up stuff happening within it. There are currently thirteen known regions of the land:

• Bilgewater
• Bandle City
• Piltover
• Zaun
• Demacia
• Iona
• Shurima
• The Freljord
• Targon
• Ixtal
• Noxus
• Shadow Isles
• The Void

That’s enough locations to make an MMO, mainly if you divide each area into smaller regions. With the way that League of Legends is evolving, there could be more later, which can be added through expansions.

However, a few of the above would probably end up as raiding or dungeon areas. Also, the Void is still an unknown element. It’s unlikely that it will be an instance where players can freely explore. People’s best guess is that it’s a dungeon-like place where players can gather rare materials in a limited time.

Similar to WoW, we should be able to see familiar characters in these locations. Caitlyn, Jace, and Heimerdinger could wander in Piltover while Ekko, Jinx, and Vi hang out in Zaun.

The Character

Being an MMO, character creation is a must. While there are a few ways to go around the player’s role in the game, one that’s open to interpretation is critical. Still, there should be a solid justification for their influence in the game’s storyline.

Along with that, the MMORPG will likely have a class system. From the character types in League, we can speculate on the classifications for the game.

• Controller (Enchanter, Catcher)
• Fighter (Juggernaut, Diver)
• Mage (Burst, Battlemage, Artillery)
• Slayer (Assassin, Skirmisher)
• Tank (Vanguard, Warden)
• Marksman

Loosely, these are how you can classify the champions in LoL. They can be adjusted a little to fit an MMO. It could start with at least four, with the others coming in updates or expansions. Marksman is a little different because it had nothing similar among the champions.

The Storyline

Considering that they’ve made so many successful things across the media, this shouldn’t be a problem for Riot. Although Arcane shot the game’s canon to bits, the MMO might be able to do some welding to create a unified storyline across the spin-offs and literature.

Otherwise, there’s always the idea of the multiverse, and each game is its own alternate universe. The characters and locations are the same, but the circumstances are not.

Runeterra is filled with conflicts to explore. Anywhere humans go, a whole host of problems come in their wake. Because of this, the MMO can potentially have exciting enemies to fight against. From a kingpin to eldritch horrors from beyond the Void, the game could have the most exciting fights and storylines.

However, there has yet to be an official word about it, so we can only speculate and imagine.

Monetization

We’re moving on to monetization, an essential part of the development process. Thus far, Riot has been making games free-to-play with minor cosmetics as their ‘premium’ products. While that bodes well for the MMO, other ways exist to get a more substantial cash flow.

For example, Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft are both buy-to-play and subscription games. You’ll need to buy the game and its expansions and pay for a plan to gain time so you can play it. They also have various microtransactions (skins and other cosmetics for FFXIV, boosts and cosmetics for WoW).

Guild Wars 2 was a buy-to-play game with microtransactions, but it has turned into a free-to-play game. However, players must still buy the expansions for additional content, and the microtransactions did not go away.

The above games are popular despite their monetization systems, though that speaks more of their gameplay and quality. Whatever method Riot goes with for this Runeterra MMO, at the very least, we can expect it to be not a pay-to-win game. They’d stick to skins and cosmetics and will not offer players anything that could become an unfair advantage to others.

If they can make it as good as the mentioned games, monetization should be the least of their worries.

Release Date

This is a nebulous topic, as gaming development takes years. Combine that with the former project lead saying that the company could nix it, and it becomes infinitely harder to pin down a date. If all goes well, we might have this League of Legends MMO in late 2024 to 2025. It could be as late as 2026 or even 2028 when counting on delays and development changes.

It will be long before we can get a look at or a hand on this game. Besides that, there’s still the possibility it gets canceled for one reason or another, and it’ll never see the light of day.

Waiting For Official News

There’s still no official announcement about it, so it could be early in development. However, the former leader revealed some things about it and how long he had been working on it before he left. It could mean that progress is slow, or Riot keeps things under wraps until they’re confident about the game.

Until then, we can only wait at the edge of our seats until an official announcement comes out. Riot has been delivering hits with their games, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. However, MMOs are a different beast altogether. Nevertheless, they can make an excellent game if they listen to player feedback and avoid the usual MMO pitfalls.

Enjoy League of Legends while you wait!