Are Riot Games making a League of Legends-based MMO?
Riot GamesFans are speculating about the possibility of a League of Legends-based MMO after Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent hinted that they might have even more announcements still to make.
Riot Games recently hosted a 10-year anniversary celebration for League of Legends, during which they unveiled a huge variety of projects currently in the works.
Having until now only ever published one game – League of Legends itself – Riot revealed that they’re now developing a digital card game titled Legends of Runeterra, an FPS currently known as Project A, and a fighting game known as Project L.
According to a report by GamePressure, however, there might be even more than that in the works. When asked about the possibility of a League of Legends-based MMO, Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent didn’t give a definitive answer, but did tease as-yet unannounced projects, stating “Do you really think that we have revealed everything?”
While it’s far from a confirmation of anything, Laurent’s statement doesn’t close the door on a League of Legends MMO, and fans have long speculated that this could be a direction Riot might eventually explore.
Riot have already announced a League of Legends-based fighting game.For a game that focuses solely on player-versus-player competition, with no form of story mode, League of Legends has a very extensive lore. The world of Runeterra features a variety of unique regions, each of which is home to several champions, and each of the 145 champions currently in the game has their own unique back-story.
Riot have expanded on that universe with collection of stories, including a partnership with Marvel to create League of Legends comics, and the recently-announced animated series in development. They’re now also using it as the setting for new titles, including LoL-based card game Legends of Runeterra and a fighting game currently known as Project L.
It certainly seems, however, that the time and effort put into developing the universe could be used to form the basis of a fully-fledged MMO, and doing so would allow Riot to compete in one of the few major game genres that won’t be covered by their existing or already announced titles.
- Read more: How to play Legends of Runeterra
The MMO market has long been dominated by World of Warcraft, and the surge of both players and viewers for the recent release of WoW Classic certainly served to demonstrate that there is still plenty of interest in the genre.
Countless games have been touted as the “WoW killer” over the years, and none have ever knocked Blizzard’s juggernaut from its podium, but a game backed by the enormous resources of Riot and set in a world that is already familiar to millions of players might have as good a shot as any of really rivaling the long-standing MMO king, if that is indeed an avenue Riot are exploring.