Riot's League of Legends MMO is said to have been "reset" and is not likely to come out anytime soon following an announcement by the company.
Studio co-founder Marc Merrill posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, noting that while Riot is still committed to the project, it went back to the drawing board at some point in the last few years.
League of Legends MMO Update
(Photo : Riot Games / Screenshot taken from official website)
In his post, Merrill said that after spending a lot of time reflecting and discussing the matter, they decided to reset the direction of the MMO project a while ago. He said that the decision was not made lightly but argued that it was necessary. He added that the initial vision just was not different enough from what players have access to today.
The Rio co-founder noted that they believe players do not want an MMO that they have already played before but only had a Runeterra coat of paint. He said that in order for them to truly do justice to the potential of the planned game and meet the players' expectations, they need to do something that feels like a true evolution of the genre, according to VideoGamesChronicle.
The League of Legends MMO project is not being spearheaded by executive producer Fabrice Condominas. Prior to joining Riot as a production director in 2021, he worked on EA's Star Wars: Squadrons and at BioWare for Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda as lead producer.
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Merrill noted that the team responsible for the League of Legends MMO started laying the groundwork for the pivot some time ago over the last year. He added that they built key components of the technical foundation to create the kind of ambitious game that they have been talking about.
The Riot co-founder said that resetting the development of the MMO game meant that they would also be "going dark" for a long time, hinting at several years. He argued that this silence would help provide space for the team so that they could focus on the massive amount of work ahead of them.
Going Silent for a Long Time
The development comes as the League of Legends MMO has been one of the most exciting projects that people know was in the works for Riot. Many fans have been eager to experience an MMO-style game set in the Runeterra universe, said Forbes.
On top of announcing the reset of the planned MMO game, Merrill's update also showed a personnel shakeup at the higher level of the development team. This includes the former lead of the project, Vijay Thakkar, becoming the technical director.
Merrill added that "now news is good news" because it meant that they were still hard at work creating the League of Legends MMO. The planned project was initially revealed to the public more than three years ago.
It was initially headed up by World of Warcraft veteran Gregg Street, who later went on to separate from the team before being followed by several other staff. The latest announcement also comes after years of silence regarding the game and what has been going on behind the scenes, according to GamesRadar+.
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