While it has been well known that League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games is working on an MMORPG based on its MOBA’s world, the studio has been incredibly quiet about the title’s status. Speaking with Game File’s Stephen Totilo, Riot Games chief product officer and co-founder Marc Merrill indicated that development is still underway, and is going well.
“Oh yeah,” said Merrill when asked whether an MMORPG was still worthwhile for Riot. “And it’s probably the project I personally spend the most time on as well.”
Merrill went on to talk about the difficulties with making an MMORPG, especially since the market is largely dominated by juggernauts like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14. He describes Riot as the company best suited to take on the challenging task.
“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,” said Merrill, mentioning that the world of Runeterra as envisioned in the several League of Legends spin-off titles, as well as hit Netflix series Arcane, was still a fan-favourite.
The last time we heard about Riot Games’ MMORPG was back in 2021 when the company had confirmed that it was recruiting more developers for the project. The company has maintained radio silence on the subject since then.
In the meantime, Riot Games is preparing to launch its fighting game based on the world of Runeterra. Dubbed 2XKO, the game will be free-to-play, and is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The roster includes Champions like Jinx, Braum and Illaoi.
