There’s been a joke amongst fans and Riot Games themselves for years now that the developer should remove the ‘S’ from the company’s name since they have only ever created one product: League of Legends. Riot has sworn over the years that they will one day create another game besides League, but almost a decade after launching the mega-popular MOBA, they still haven’t released anything else.
In a new conversation with Variety, Riot Games’ co-founder Marc Merrill talked candidly about his and the studio’s goals moving forward and to finally lose the title of simply being “the ‘League of Legends’ company.” Merrill says that it’s an “exciting time” at Riot currently and that they are working on many different ideas for their second game. “The reality at Riot is that we are exploring lots of different games. We have a whole bunch of RND teams exploring different opportunities that we think would resonate with players,” Merrill said.
Even though there aren’t many details on the direction Riot might be going with this next game, Merrill did say that it will be a niche product in the same way that League of Legends is. “Like with League of Legends we’re not going to try and please everyone or do things even oriented to a mass market. We think of League of Legends as a niche market that’s really focused,” he said. Merrill went on to add, “That’s the only type of game we want to create: games with longevity — that’s worth your time.”
As for the plan to create these future products, Merrill said that he wants Riot to release a handful of games every decade. With that in mind though, don’t expect them to lose their focus on League of Legends. Merrill said that the studio’s commitment and focus to League of Legends is a large part of why they succeeded in the first place, and that won’t be changing.
It’s going to be interesting to see what this next project from Riot Games will become. One thing’s for certain, the company definitely has the funds and resources to create just about anything. Whether or not these limitless resources will lead to making one of the biggest games of all-time much like League of Legends however remains to be seen.