Riot Games - the studio best known for its systematic sexism and of course the mega-popular MOBA, League of Legends - took to the internet this afternoon to celebrate its 10-year anniversary by announcing some new projects heading our way. That's right, after a decade of staring down the same horizon, the company has decided that it's ready to branch out and try a new path. Well, sorta.
Anyway, here are the main takeaways from Riot's celebratory livestream:
Probably the most "didn't see that coming" of the games announced today is a character-based, tactical first-person shooter, dubbed "Project A", that Riot is currently working on to compete against the likes of Overwatch and Rainbow Six: Siege.
From what little I've seen, Project A definitely looks to be an amalgamation of the aforementioned titles, but with an added mix of Counter Strike and Team Fortress for good measure. That said, Riot is stressing that Project A will set itself apart from the competition by utilizing a refined backend that will, allegedly, solve all the problems that have plagued online competitive games since the dawn of the internet: cheaters and lag. Good luck, Riot, good luck.
Not much else in the way of details were offered for Project A, aside from it being something to look forward to in 2020.
Not gonna lie, if it wasn't the middle of October, I would've wagered that League of Legends Esports Manager was Riot's ill-timed delivery of an April Fool's Day gag. However, it is apparently very real.
While it's no secret that League of Legends is at the top of the eSports ladder, a video game that has players managing a digital team of players playing a video game strikes me as being a little bizarre to say the least, if not incredibly meta. Then again, I am far from Riot's target demographic.
We (mostly) knew that Riot was working on a fighting game based on the League of Legends universe ever since it was teased at this year's EVO tournament, but it's now been confirmed.
Dubbed "Project L", the game will almost definitely feature fighters from LoL's pre-existing roster, but obviously - since it's a fighting game - players will be experiencing their favorite fighter's flavor of combat in a completely different way.
No further details were released, and Riot says that there won't be any for quite some time.
In addition to bringing us up to speed on Legends of Runeterra aka the next big strategy card game hoping to take down Hearthsone, Riot announced that it is working on a new variant to its flagship MOBA specifically designed for console and mobile platforms. This version of the game, titled League of Legends: Wild Rift, aims to make the lauded 5v5 combat of the original more accessible to those without a mouse and keyboard.
While Riot claims that League of Legends: Wild Rift isn't simply a port of its PC counterpart, I'm willing to bet that this version will possess the same capacity to spike player's blood pressures and otherwise bring out the worst in people.
Lastly, Riot released a new trailer for Arcane - an animated series based on none other than League of Legends, because why not. As much as much as it pains me to say this, it actually looks pretty good.
