League of Legends Developing an MMO? Riot Games Prepares New Announcements
Riot Games studios' upcoming video game roster may soon get a new MMO. In celebration of LoL's 10th anniversary, the developers hosted a special media panel where Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent revealed some very exciting MMO news.
Many new games from Riot were shown at the LoL 10th Anniversary event in London, which we also attended. Our field reporter was there to bring you the latest news from the studio, but we really didn't expect so many announcements. Game designers of the League of Legends studio, celebrating the tenth anniversary of its existence, have already announced a fighting game, card trading and, possibly, hack'n'Slash. The latter title is seen by many as a competition not to Diablo, but to the vast World of Warcraft. However, even if the mysterious Project F does not become an MMO game, such a project may still be in the plans of the American studio. This is confirmed by a statement by President Nicolò Laurent during a panel for industry journalists from Europe. When asked about the MMO by our representative, Laurento neither confirmed nor denied that a project of this nature is currently in development, but immediately added: "Do you really think we've covered everything?" Thus, he confirmed that Riot Games' designers have something up their sleeve, and that it could include a new MMO.
This isn't the first time we've heard about a potential MMORPG from the developers of LoL, but the game's 10th anniversary has revived the discussion about it. Riot Games announced an animated series built into the LoL universe, and release plans were revealed in September Realms of Runeterra, an encyclopedia describing the lore of the League of Legends. These were not the first signs of artists' interest in such alternative works. Since 2014, the game world has been greatly expanded, from the development of hero stories to the ongoing development of the Runeterra interactive map. Such actions are unlikely to serve LoL itself, nor the fighting game, nor the trading card game, nor other projects of this type that use the knowledge of the franchise rather freely. However, if LoL developers dream of creating an MMORPG, in this case they will need a full-fledged Universe with a rich history and interesting characters, locations, and so on.
If this doesn't convince anyone, perhaps other actions by Riot Games will strengthen our convictions. The statement by Mark Merrill, co-founder of the company, for example, seems intriguing. A year ago, a designer unexpectedly asked gamers on Twitter if the studio should make an MMO game. Players have also noticed that since 2014, the developer has hired a lot of staff with experience in MMO title design. This included Greg Street, who once worked on World of Warcraft, who assured via Reddit last year that he was not working on any MMO.
So, is there an adventure waiting for us in an MMO game set in the League of Legends universe? For now, this remains a matter of speculation, even after Nicolò Laurent revealed a few things. However, he confirms that Riot Games has yet to have its final say. The only thing left to do is wait for further announcements.