Riot announces League of Legends fighting game, Overwatch-like shooter, Runeterra card game, open-world RPG, and animated series

(Image credit: Riot)

The 10th anniversary livestream for League of Legends revealed a slew of exciting news for fans of the genre-dominating MOBA. We found out about League of Legends: Wild Rift, a mobile and console version of the eSports phenomenon with a release time as early as 2020 for mobile. Now we're learning that Riot is developing a bunch of new games, including a shooting game, a fighting game, a card game called Runeterra, and an open-world game, the latter three taking place in the League of Legends universe. 

Fighting game

The League of Legends fighting game, codenamed Project L, was confirmed in August, but we didn't know anything about it aside from it being a fighting game developed by Riot. Tuesday's livestream confirmed the project would be set in the League of Legends universe. Aside from that small, yet revealing detail, we didn't learn anything new.

Shooting game 

The shooting game, which isn't based on League of Legends, had a more revealing announcement. We got a generous amount of gameplay footage for an unnamed project still early in development, as well as plenty of key details. Project A is a competitive shooter taking place in a futuristic Earth where characters each have their own unique abilities.

Riot says Project A is being headed by a team of veteran developers and seeks to "evolve" the tactical shooter space with style, creativity, and improved technical fidelity. The latter point is emphasized in the announcement trailer, and Riot seems confident in their ability to fix many of the technical issues prevalent in the online shooter genre. It's not a stretch to say Project A looks like a direct shot at Blizzard's Overwatch, and it couldn't have come at a less advantageous time for Blizzard

Card game 

Surprisingly enough, the project we now know most about, and even the one that sounds most ambitious, is Legends of Runeterra, the free-to-play card battler taking aim squarely at Hearthstone. Runeterra will be crossplay-compatible and available on PC and mobile when it launches in 2020. Pre-registering is open now and gives you the chance to join the upcoming preview patch and closed beta in 2020. The FAQ page for Legends of Runeterra is expansive and detailed, even diving into the risky waters of paid transactions.

"Bottom line: In Legends of Runeterra, you will never pay for randomized packs, and you have a bunch of different ways to get the cards you actually want and build multiple decks for both casual duels and the competitive meta."

Open-world game 

(Image credit: Riot)

This one we don't know much about aside from the very brief footage we saw during the livestream. Internally at Riot, it's called Project F, and it looks suspiciously similar to yet another one of Blizzard's flagship IPs, Diablo. Otherwise, Riot says it's a "project that explores the possibilities of traversing the world of Runeterra with your friends." 

Animated series 

Finally, there's Arcane, the animated series based on the League of Legends universe announced alongside Riot's Tuesday barrage of new game announcements. The project is being developed and produced internally at Riot, and is expected some time in 2020. Like most reveals today, details are scarce. At least here, we have this beautiful trailer to glean details from.

As if this isn't enough proof of Riot's ambition, check out this actually real collaboration between League of Legends and French fashion house Louis Vuitton.

CATEGORIES
Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

Latest in League of Legends
Arcane
Arcane Season 2 gets one last dance as the League of Legends spin-off animators return to bring Jinx and Ekko back to the series' most iconic song
The Demon's Hand
League of Legends shadow-drops a Balatro-style roguelike, but the catch is that to complete it you'll have to actually play League of Legends
Arcane
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
League of Legends
As League of Legends players blast 800-hour grinds, Riot says this "wasn't meant to get harder" and "we messed up" on the whole First Blood thing too
Arcane season 2
Arcane writer says "it was always our hope" to get a character from the show into League of Legends
Valorant
Riot Games cracks down on Valorant and League of Legends streamers who promote boosting, smurfing, and buying accounts
Latest in News
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says
First-person screenshot from ASYLUM, showing the protagonist's hand holding up a notebook while walking through a dark corridor.
After 15 years and a $120,000 Kickstarter push, this cult horror dev has finally released a successor to their 2006 breakout game