We haven't heard much about Riot Games' League of Legends MMO since it was quietly revealed in 2020, but that's very much been by design. That, and because Riot was happy to announce it super early into development as "it would likely leak, anyway".
Riot VP Greg Street has taken to Twitter to address community questions over the project's light-on-details reveal and when we'll get "more real" information. The thought behind the "low-key" reveal is fairly rational – Riot needs MMO experts to develop the game, and what better way to get those job ads in front of people than to generate some buzz? As you might remember, GTA 6 was also revealed in a relatively low-key way, and the array of Rockstar job ads up right now point to a similar rationale. And, yes, Riot is aware that many announcements in the industry tend to leak ahead of time.
"Often in this business, you worry about someone scooping you, but that is harder to do with an MMO," Street says. "Everyone more or less knows how to make one. The challenge is actually doing so, and the massive cost and time it takes."
- 4 years later, the League of Legends MMO remains a major project for Riot Games' co-founder who says it's "exactly the type of company" that should be making MMOs
- World of Warcraft and League of Legends MMO veteran says he saw Riot and Blizzard "seemingly abandon" approaching development "from a place of humility instead of arrogance"
As for when you'll see more of the League of Legends MMO, it looks like you'll have to wait a bit longer. Street explains that another benefit of the project's low-key reveal is that the team can chop and change plot points and features without fans worrying that something is wrong – eagle-eyed fans dissected Cyberpunk 2077 when it came out to discover a lack of wall-running after some very public development, so you can understand where he's coming from.
"We know that when we start releasing actual information, such as features, the story, a look at the art, shit will get much more real," Street shares. "And it will also make it harder to undo those features, change the story, or update the art. Players and media may again interpret this as 'something must be wrong' because they aren't used to seeing those changes (which are very normal) in public."
If it makes the wait easier, Street is clearly confident about what Riot has. The industry veteran admits that the team wants to talk about the game more and that everyone believes they have something "truly special". Alas, "it's not the time yet".
Once communication starts, though, Street says you can expect it to look like what Riot is doing with its League of Legends fighting game, currently named Project L. Just the other day, we found out that the fight 'em up with be free-to-play and include League of Legends' Illaoi in a video update.
Can't wait to learn more? Here's the lore aficionado mapping out the League of Legends MMO years before its developers.
