The massively multiplayer online (MMO) genre is a tough one to break into. Despite a large amount of investment into developing new MMOs over the years by massive studios like Amazon, it’s been nigh on impossible to shake the top three of World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14 and Old School RuneScape from their perches.However, that doesn’t stop developers from trying. A successful MMO can be a guaranteed revenue generator for years after release. A few years ago, we got confirmation that Riot Games was working on an MMO based in Runeterra, the universe featured in League of Legends and its spin-off projects.Well, Riot has been tight-lipped about its project ever since the soft announcement made by executive producer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street in December 2020. However, we did receive a tidbit of news a few weeks ago, when Street announced he was leaving the project.
Street cited “a combo of personal and professional considerations” as the reason he stepped down. He also provided a small update on the progress of the MMO, saying “I said from the beginning that building a League of Legends MMO worthy of you was going to be a long journey. The most important job I could do as part of that was to build an amazing team, and while I try to stay humble overall, I will brag about this team one day! The MMO is in good hands and it’s the right time to hand over the reigns for the next phase.”
Following Street’s resignation, Riot co-founder Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill took to Twitter to speak about progress on the MMO, stating “First, we are still in very early development, but we have a direction we’re very excited about. We’re working hard to deliver an experience that you’ll love (But it still is a very long road to get there, thanks for being patient with us.) We believe in this game and the team working on it. If we look at development as a race, Greg has run an amazing first leg with an incredible team, and I know whoever takes the baton next will be set up for success going forward.”
Besides that small update from Merrill, we’ve seen nothing else of substance about the MMO. There’s a lot of healthy speculation that can be made - the game likely takes place in Runeterra, it’s going to utilise the universe’s popular regions, and we’ll probably see some involvement from the champions of League of Legends. But that’s all it is for now, speculation.
Fans are eager for a more robust update or some footage of the MMO, but as Merill said, Riot still has a long way to go.