The Future of Riot: League of Legend’s Current and Upcoming Games and MMOs

Riot’s Game Development Plans

Riot has been at the forefront of the gaming industry ever since the release of its massively popular MOBA game, League of Legends. League has become one of the top-played games in the history of gaming and is the main competitor of Valve’s Dota 2 which is the successor to the first and original MOBA game, Dota. With Riot’s recent successes with their FPS game, Valorant, and their original Netflix series, Arcane, the gaming studio is keen on expanding its roster of games for different genres.

Riot has already released a couple of games inspired by the League of Legends universe. Games like Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra have already amassed thousands of players. Meanwhile, single players such as Ruined King and Hextech Mayhem have seen a level of success that has encouraged the gaming studio’s expansion into other gaming genres. With Riot confirming an upcoming League MMORPG, fans are wondering what are the other upcoming games that League developers have in store for their community.

What is League of Legends?

League is arguably one of the most popular and most played MOBA games if not the most popular. The game is set in the fractioned world of Runeterra. A fragmented continent where various regions and factions are embroiled in conflict. The world features many nations and factions such as the imperialist Noxus, the aristocratic Demacia, the technologically advanced Piltover, the ruined empire Shurima, and many others. Each of these factions is represented by various champions who battle against other characters in arenas such as Summoner’s Rift and the Howling Abyss.

In the game, players are drafted into a 5v5 battle format. Each player gets to select one champion who they will use during the duration of the fight. These champions have varying roles and abilities. The objective of the game is simple and standard to any MOBA, destroy the enemy throne or nexus. However, destroying the nexus is not easy, so summoners will have to level up and increase their power in order to defeat the enemy team.

Ever since the introduction of the first MOBA, battle arena games have dominated the world of computer games and boosted the popularity of esports even further. When League of Legends was first introduced, there were already a handful of MOBA games that existed at the time. Games like Heroes of Newerth, Smite, Demigod, and Dota 2 were also trying to emulate the success of the first MOBA game. Though some of these games are still somewhat active today, League and Dota 2 were by far the most successful games in this gaming genre.

Upcoming Games Under Riot

With Riot finding multiple successful ventures into different platforms such as TV and Music, the game is taking a step further into its gaming industry by introducing more games. During an announcement in 2019, Riot has detailed a roadmap and announced other future projects such as Project L which is speculated to be a fighting game. Here are all the potential (confirmed or unconfirmed) games that will appear in the near future:

Project L

Project L has been in development since 2019 when it was included in the announced roadmap of all current projects under Riot. A potential fighting game by Riot was already speculated as early as 2016 when the gaming company acquired Radiant Entertainment which was well-known for creating and developing Rising Thunder. The company was also the home of the Canon brothers who are some of the most well-known and respected figures in the fighting games industry.

The upcoming fighting game will feature champions from League of Legends as the playable characters in the FGC. There is no confirmed release date for Project L yet as Radiant Entertainment and Riot are taking their time to optimize the game. As of the moment, the only confirmed detail is that the game will be launched in one go when it is ready and will not be available at any earlier dates.

Upcoming MMO

The idea of Riot developing an MMO has been tossed around as early as 2019. During the announcement of the gaming company’s roadmap, it was speculated that Project F was going to be an open-world League MMO. It was only after the Arcane series was released that the company confirmed that an MMORPG is currently under development and will be going live after a few years. As of the moment, Riot is still hiring people and teams to help with its development, meaning the game is still in its earliest stages of production. This indicates that the game’s earliest release date will be sometime in late 2023.

Lead Producer Gregg Street has announced that they are currently doing their best in planning and conceptualizing the game. Since the MMO comes from Riot, which is a giant in the gaming industry, there will be a lot of expectations placed on the game. Riot has even assumed that the minimum expenditure for the development of the League MMO will be somewhere around a hundred million dollars.

While the game is still in development, fans have been speculating on what regions and what classes Riot will implement or include in the game. The gaming company could subscribe to the traditional classes of standard MMO games, or they can abide by the current classes or roles in their MOBA game. Here are the potential regions that might appear in the League MMO:

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

In addition to these 13 regions of League, here are the possible classes that might appear if the game is heavily influenced by the MOBA game:

Attacker Class

• Juggernaut
• Initiator
• Burst
• Battlemage
• Artillery
• Marksman
• Assassin
• Skirmisher

Support Class

• Enchanter
• Disabler

Tank Class

• Vanguard
• Warden

All of these regions and classes are only speculations since Riot’s MMO is still in its early stages. However, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the gaming company will go with this format in order to stand out against other contemporary MMO games.

Song of Nunu

Riot also has another confirmed upcoming single-player game. Song of Nunu is an adventure game where gamers take control of Nunu, who fans of League of Legends recognize as one of the Frejlord’s champions. The game is set in the icy northern region as Nunu, along with Willump, embarks on a quest to search for his lost mother. The game’s playstyle is similar to iconic adventure games such as Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Song of Nunu is set to go live in the Steam shop in December 2022.

Currently Playable League Inspired Games

From the success built by League of Legends, Riot started to expand to other gaming genres. These games are successful in their own right with some of them having their own esports league and tournaments. Here is the list of playable games set in and outside the world of Runeterra:

Teamfight Tactics

The first game to spawn out of League was the auto battler game Teamfight Tactics. The game revolves around 1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1 format wherein players loot or buy champions from the shop. These champions are then placed on the board before the timer runs out. Once the timer ends, each team of champions will battle another team of champions automatically. Gamers only need to observe and strategize what their next move is as they watch the round unfold.

Just because the champions battle their opponents automatically does not mean the players cannot influence the match. Combinations and champion synergies are key to winning the game. Placement of the units on the board is also crucial as different units have different abilities. Placing them on the wrong tile can make them useless or easily defeated. Gamers must also be able to manage their economy in order to level up and buy higher-tier units.

Legends of Runeterra

LoR is Riot’s digital collectible card game that is played similarly to other card games such as Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon Card Games, and Gwent. The game is the second Riot game to spawn from League of Legends. LoR cards are also based on characters and locations from different countries, regions, and factions in the world of Runeterra. Gamers will have to collect various cards in order to build decks to battle with other players. Synergies and champions cards are very important in this game. Some decks are stronger than the others while others may be weaker than most but are used to specifically counter certain strong decks.

Ruined King

The game developed by Airship Syndicate under Riot is the first single-player RPG that is based on the League of Legends universe. Ruined King is a turn-based RPG where players take control of a team of three units. Gamers can choose to use Ahri, Braum, Illaoi, Miss Fortune, Pyke, or Yasuo in their quest to stop Thresh from awakening Viego and to prevent the Harrowing. Ruined King is a turn-based single-player game meaning players and their opponents take turns deciding which attacks or skills they will use per sequence. The game