Riot has ‘reset’ its League of Legends MMO and will be ‘going dark for a long time’

20.03.2024 - 22:59 / videogameschronicle.com / Marc Merrill / Tom Ivan

Riot Games has provided an update on its League of Legends MMO, which is still being worked on but remains years from release.

In a lengthy thread on X, studio co-founder Marc Merrill said Riot is committed the project, which was announced in December 2020, but that it went back to the drawing board with it at some point in the last few years.

“After a lot of reflection and discussion, we’ve decided to reset the direction of the project some time ago,” he wrote. “This decision wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. The initial vision just wasn’t different enough from what you can play today.

“We don’t believe you all want an MMO that you’ve played before with a Runeterra coat of paint; to truly do justice to the potential of Runeterra and to meet the incredibly high expectations of players around the world, we need to do something that truly feels like a significant evolution of the genre.”

The project is now being led by executive producer Fabrice Condominas. Prior to joining Riot as a production director in 2021, he was a lead producer on EA’s Star Wars: Squadrons, and a lead producer at BioWare, where he worked on Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda, among other tiles.

“We started laying the groundwork for this pivot some time ago and over the last year under [technical director] Vijay Thakkar’s management, we built key components of the technical foundation to create the kind of ambitious game we’re talking about,” Merrill said.

“Resetting our development path also means we will be ‘going dark’ for a long time—likely several years. This silence will help provide space for the team to focus on the incredible amount of work ahead of them. We understand the excitement and anticipation that surrounds new information, but we ask for your trust during this silent phase.

“Remember, ‘no news is good news,’ as it means we’re hard at work, pouring our hearts and souls into making something that we hope you’ll love.”

Riot announced last month that its League of Legends fighting game, which was previously referred to as Project L, is now titled 2XKO.

The studio also confirmed it’s targeting a 2025 launch window for the 2v2 tag-based fighter on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.