It finally happened. Riot Games is now preparing to bring its biggest title, the MOBA League of Legends, to mobile devices.
The news comes exclusive from Reuters, which states that Riot Games will develop this mobile title with its Chinese parent company Tencent. League of Legends is currently the most popular desktop-based game in the world.
The information comes from three sources with knowledge of the matter, according to Reuters. Company relations between the US-based Riot Games and Tencent have been somewhat strained for some time now, most likely due to some disagreements on how to best capitalize on the popularity of League of Legends. One of the sources states that Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, rejected a proposal from Tencent years ago to develop a mobile version, a market dominated by the Chinese giant.
Tencent then went on to develop a mobile MOBA title by itself, which then went on to become a huge success. The MOBA, called Honour of Kings, was launched back in November of 2015, and has since become the world’s highest-grossing multiplayer online battle arena title.
This was not without consequences, though. Tencent’s move to create a MOBA title without Riot Games caused more strain to their corporate partnership. This was further exacerbated when Tencent launched an adaptation of Honor of Kings to overseas markets in 2016 and 2017, a title called Arena of Valor. It was widely regarded as a flop by most analysts due to saturation in the MOBA market.
One of the sources states that Tencent and Riot have been working on this mobile version of League of Legends for more than a year now, although a separate source notes that despite the development period, it’s unlikely to see release within the year.
League of Legends has become somewhat of a household name now when it comes to MOBAs, sharing that prestige with Valve’s offering, Dota 2. League of Legends is still very profitable, despite the recent rise of the battle royal genre and Fortnite. Just last year, it has brought in $1.4 billion in total revenue, although that figure is down 21 percent from last year.
