Riot Games teases seven new games in development and an animated series; The new Blizzard Entertainment?

[TVwazhere]

10 years ago, a small video game developer released their first and for the longest time only game, League of Legends. While not the first MOBA on the market, this game quickly made Riot Games at a time the #1 most played video game in the world (1) and one of the highest grossing video game companies ever, even though their game was F2P. Bought out partially by Tencent in 2011 and fully owned by 2015, Riot Games only ever seemed to dabble in merchandising and game modes, only recently releasing a board games based off the video game and a completely new game mode Team Fight Tactics (TFT for short, which is essentially Autochess which is again not new in itself, but has quickly developed a massive and passionate fan base). 

 

Yesterday, Riot Games announced that they are developing five new games ranging to Competitive FPS to Fighting games featuring LoL characters, as well as an animated series. 

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In the span of a one-hour livestream Riot Games went from a one-trick pony to a Marvel Cinematic Universe. Celebrating League of Legends tenth anniversary, Riot came in swinging with a special edition of its Riot Pls show where it revealed what's coming not only to League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, but also unveiled a fighting game, a tactical FPS, a card game, a esports management simulator, an animated TV series, and what looks like an action RPG set in the LoL universe. Oh, and mobile versions for both League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics.

 

We're going to ignore the PC changes of both LoL and TFT since they're not newsworthy. Firstly lets start with the games with have the most info on.

 

Team Fight Tactics (Mobile) and Wild Rift (Mobile):

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For Teamfight Tactics, its mobile version will have cross-play with the PC and be mostly the same game except for, y'know, on a phone. League of Legends, however, is getting an entirely new game called Wild Rift that's the classic MOBA reimagined for phones and consoles. Though it'll look and feel mostly the same, there are some key differences to consider. Matches will be considerably shorter, for example, lasting only around 15 to 20 minutes and there will be a smaller selection of cosmetics at first.

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It is being ported to Android and iOS and should be available Q1 2020. If you have already been playing the game on PC, your progress will transfer to the stand-alone mobile app.

 

Legends of Runterra (Card Game, PC)

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Legends of Runeterra is a card battler also set in the world of League of Legends. It will be coming to PC, iOS, and Android. Players can pre-register for a chance to play a preview slated for October 15-20. There will also be another testing period in November, but Riot does not have a window scheduled yet. A final closed beta will occur in Q1 2020 with the game to follow later that year.

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 Legends of Runeterra wants to be even more accessible than Hearthstone, and it's ditching all those nasty microtransactions to boot.

Instead of gambling on expensive booster packs, you can just buy cards directly for either real money or in-game currency earned through playing.

 

Arcane (Animated Series)

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Arcane: An animated series set in the League of Legends universe, planned for 2020.

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It's also set in the League of Legends universe but will shed light on the backstory of a few of its most iconic champions like Jinx. Its set in the utopian city of Piltover and Zaun, the seedy underbelly that exists below it. Again, we don't know much beyond what was shown in the trailer, but Arcane looks awesome.

If you wanna watch the Trailer, it's here

 

 

League of Legends Esports Manager

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League of Legends: Esports Manager is a simulation that puts users in the shoes of an LoL pro team manager. The game requires players to build a team by signing talent to contracts and winning its way to the LoL World Championships. It may even incorporate using real-life stats from professional teams in real-time.

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The players in-game will be modelled after their real-life counterparts, starting with those who participate in the League Pro League and expanding to other leagues over time. What's cool is that revenue from League of Legends Esports Manager will be shared with the featured pro teams to help encourage the growth of LoL esports as a whole

 

Those are all the Titled releases coming out which looks the most ready. However, Riot Games also tease and showed off some project games that are in progress as well.

 

Project A (FPS)

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Project A is a competitive shooter like Overwatch and is one of the few games announced that is not set in the LoL universe. So no Champions will be seen here. Instead, it will take place on a future version of Earth and will star “a lethal cast of characters.”

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this FPS sounds a lot like a more cartoony version of Rainbow Six Siege thanks, in part, to its emphasis on character abilities and highly lethal gunplay. During the livestream, executive producer Anna Donlon made a big show about how Project A was going to solve long-standing issues with FPSes like lag and cheating and that Riot was building Project A to push the technical boundaries of FPSes forward. It all sounded very ambitious.

This honestly looks more like a cross between CS:GO play style and TF2 artwork to me. Notably they're extensively working on network ping and latency which soundss good, but this might also means that everything is in real time and therefore there's a disconnect betwen your inputs and them registering on screen. Only time will tell.

 

Project L (Fighting Game)

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A fighting game set in the LoL universe" that's "in early stage development." Likely being developed by the remnants of Rising Thunder developer Radiant Entertainment, which Riot acquired in 2016.

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All we know right now is that it's codenamed Project L and that Tom Cannon and the team making it will be "going dark" and that players shouldn't expect "anything soon." But the brief footage we did see showed Ahri and Darius battling it out in a desert—not exactly indicative of what's to come but cool nonetheless.

 

Project F (???)

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A very early development project that explores the possibilities of traversing the world of Runeterra with your friends," as Riot describes it. Brief streamed footage looked reminiscent of Diablo and other third-person action RPGs.

 

Opinion: 

 

I havent actively followed League of Legends in a long time (and judging by the lack of Status updates about the announcement, I'm guessing most of you dont either.) Nevertheless, the new FPS has me intrigued, and I have many friends who are pumped for the TFT mobile game as well as the Runterra card game and Arcane. Short of an MMO (and arguably a RTS), Riot's lineup looks like it will go Toe-to-Toe against most of Blizzards games, which will be interesting to see how they play out in the coming months.

 

Sources:

https://www.techspot.com/news/82366-riot-has-six-new-titles-works-three-lol.html

https://www.pcgamer.com/league-of-legends-anniversary-announcements/

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/10/riot-is-expanding-the-league-of-legends-universe-into-multiple-new-genres/

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/15/20915506/riot-games-league-of-legends-10th-anniversary-marc-merrill-interview

[TheGlenlivet]

Riot is owned by China yes...?  Good timing.  Way to fill the void left by Blizzard.

[TVwazhere]

Just now, TheGlenlivet said:

Riot is owned by China yes...?  Good timing.  Way to fill the void left by Blizzard.

Tencent is a Chinese based Company, so yes. I purposefully omitted any Controversy regarding Blizard's recent headlines.

[Arika]

4 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

Riot is owned by China yes...?  

A lot ofgame companies are these days. 

 

 

That fighting game and card game look like something I could get into. Don't 

Play league anymore, but I do like the characters

 

[NinJake]

Project F doesn't seem like the best code-name.

F.

 

Still hoping it turns out good. Never played LoL but Diablo is a ton of fun!

[PCGuy_5960]

Project A is kinda interesting, from what I can tell it's kind of a CSxOW crossover.

[TVwazhere]

16 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

Project A is kinda interesting, from what I can tell it's kind of a CSxOW crossover.

I agree 

56 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

This honestly looks more like a cross between CS:GO play style and TF2 artwork to me. 

:^) 

[Nowak]

1 hour ago, Arika S said:

A lot ofgame companies are these days. 

 

The thing is that Tencent owns Riot 100% whereas they only have a 5% stake in a lot of other companies. Except Epic, wherein they own 40%, but even in that case they aren't the majority shareholder.

[jiyeon]

Project L and Project F's screenshots interest me a lot. I'm a huge fan of the hero Ahri, and as a person who has been reluctant to join in on League of Legend due to how steep the learning curve is for absolute beginners, it might be a nice alternative to play Riot games that still involve the main League of Legends roster.

[Arika]

5 minutes ago, sowon said:

Project L and Project F's screenshots interest me a lot. I'm a huge fan of the hero Ahri,

back when i used to play, she was my main.

 

If i can play a Diablo like game with her, with the same abilities, i would be so happy

[Bananasplit_00]

I am suuuuuuuuuuper fucking hyped for Project A, a new hero shooter makes me really excited. Hopefully you can get it to run on Linux, if not it goes in the trash too

[leadeater]

8 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

League of Legends Esports Manager

...................... LOL! 

[xAcid9]

Hopefully Project F doesn't go F while in development cycle. I need another isometric arpg. 

[RyomaSJibenG]

until Riot does RTS like Starcraft, then we'll talk

 

i couldn't care less about this overbloated MOBA and Diablo style dungeon crawler

[TVwazhere]

13 hours ago, sowon said:

Project L and Project F's screenshots interest me a lot. I'm a huge fan of the hero Ahri, and as a person who has been reluctant to join in on League of Legend due to how steep the learning curve is for absolute beginners, it might be a nice alternative to play Riot games that still involve the main League of Legends roster.

You could also play TFT which does include Ahri as a chess piece, though you're not guaranteed to get her every match.

[TheGlenlivet]

6 hours ago, Tony Tony Chopper said:

 

 Kind of pointless to boycot Blizzard and then to play other games that are pretty much invested or owned by firms from China.

Yeah that was my point.  Maybe I should have added a "/s" for sarcasm...

[Doobeedoo]

Seems quite underwhelming really. They're all based on existing IP for start. Also, yet another card game, another hero shooter, fighting game with already existing heroes, the RPG we'll see, really doubt it will be anything special.

[cafe]

theyre making another trash champion based fps

i would play it if it was more like csgo but nah, they jump on all the garbage bandwagons.

im done with riot games anyway, they made league completely unplayable.

for a game ive been playing since beta, it quite depressing what theyve turned it into

[cafe]

7 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

You could also play TFT which does include Ahri as a chess piece, though you're not guaranteed to get her every match.

tft is literally the dumbest game to exist.

 

@xAcid9

just wait for lost ark Kapp

 

[suicidalfranco]

Late

Late

Late

 

At this rate i can expect a battle royale in 5 years, a souls like game in 10 and a creature collection game in 20+ years

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xAcid9]

7 hours ago, RelativeMono said:

just wait for lost ark Kapp

That game definitely not coming to SEA region. PepeHands

[cafe]

@xAcid9

 

i mean, i could see it coming to china, no?

[ImNotGayBut5BuckIs5Bucks]

100% owned by tencent . wish i knew that b4 i dumped so many years in LOL. on a lighter note. i have several lvl 30 acounts if someone wants one.100% free. they so old infact im the guy who locked down the sumoner name Heimerdinger. private msg me if interested. most have at least 1 skin

[Arika]

4 minutes ago, ImNotGayBut5BuckIs5Bucks said:

100% owned by tencent . wish i knew that b4 i dumped so many years in LOL.

it's almost like fun games can exist regardless of who owns them.

[cafe]

3 minutes ago, Arika S said:

it's almost like fun games can exist regardless of who owns them.

which game exists that is fun?