The League of Legends MMO has been cooking for over four years at this point, but Riot Games is seemingly still chasing the World of Warcraft train.
When asked about the unnamed project in an interview with Game File, Riot Games co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill said it's "probably the project I personally spend the most time on as well.”
The massively multiplayer spin on the world's most famous MOBA was first announced in 2020 before going radio silent for many years. The last time we heard anything about the shadowy project was when Merrill himself said it had been "reset" because it felt like any old MMO just with a "Runeterra coat of paint" slapped on top.
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With such a turbulent production, it's good to hear that Merrill still thinks it's worth pursuing. Asked why, he explained it's "because when you abstract to the feeling that I think many people who have historically loved MMOs sort of nostalgically look back and wish they could rediscover, I think that that is a very worthy experience to try to chase. And it's really hard to do," he said.
Merrill explained that making MMOs is so hard because developers need to do a lot at a "high level," while having a world people want to spend time in and an "incredible team" to make it all happen. Despite all the things that could go wrong and have gone wrong, though, Merrill still thinks "Riot's exactly the type of company that should go after those types of opportunities, if we’re trying to make it better for the player," especially since he believes "people want to run around the world of Runeterra."
The LoL MMO has "a lot of momentum" and "a great direction," despite going dark for its reset.
