After a long period of silence, there is news about the planned MMO from Riot Games. The project is being relaunched, the original direction was not innovative enough for the decision-makers
The fact that the still nameless massive multiplayer online game (MMO) in the League of Legends universe has not been forgotten or scrapped can be seen as positive news. Riot Games co-founder and Chief Product Officer Marc Merrill reassures fans on X: “Before anyone panics, yes, we are still working on the game.” However, not in the same way as in the first few years after the big announcement in December 2020.
“After much deliberation, we decided some time ago to redefine the direction of the project,” writes Merrill. “This decision was not easy, but it was necessary. The original vision simply wasn’t different enough from what you can play today.” In other words: the first approach was not innovative enough. “We don’t think you want an MMO that you’ve played before – just with a Runeterra twist,” continued Merrill.
“Several years”: Another radio silence announced
Instead, Riot Games wants to “create something that feels like a real evolution of the genre”. This is also accompanied by a change in project management: Fabrice Condominas will be the new Executive Producer of the MMO. Greg Street was the head of the game until March 2023, but left the company at that time. Condominas not only has management experience at Riot Games itself, he has also held management positions at Electronic Arts (EA) and BioWare.
As part of the “restart of our development path”, Merrill has announced that there will once again be a longer period of radio silence – “several years” in fact. This silence should “help the team focus on the large amount of work that lies ahead”. Meanwhile, Merrill asks for the fans’ trust and reminds them: “No news is good news.” Whether the long silence before the latest update is a good example of this is something everyone will have to decide for themselves.
The decision to restart the MMO project must also be seen in the light of the recent mass redundancies at Riot Games. The publisher announced in January that 530 jobs would be cut. The reason given by Riot was that it had grown too quickly. Furthermore, not all games had “developed so well” and some had been co-financed by other titles.
It is therefore quite remarkable that the resources for the long-term MMO change of course are still available – although this had certainly already been taken into account in the personnel calculations.
