Riot Games has now confirmed that a League of Legends MMO is finally in the works. Here’s everything we know about the LoL RPG title so far, including regions, classes, and more.
The League of Legends universe has exploded over the past few years, with Riot adding auto-chess, card games, the adventure game “The Fallen King” and even an upcoming fighting game to their roster in constant expansion for the universe of Runeterra.
In late 2019, League of Legends founder Marc Merrill teased an MMORPG. Twelve months later, Riot Vice President Greg Street officially, and rather quietly, to be honest, confirmed that Riot was indeed developing the most anticipated League of Legends title of all time.
Here is a summary of all the current information regarding the new League of Legends MMO developed by Riot Games.
Riot’s new MMORPG title offers a world of possibilities.
When will Riot’s MMO be released?
For starters, what could be the planned launch date for the League of Legends MMO? Unfortunately, it looks like the game still has a long way to go before release. When Street revealed that Riot was actively engaged in the development of the project, it also issued a call for applications, indicating that the game is still in the early stages of development.
This means that LoL developers are likely still early in the process, with much of the game still in the “theoretical” phase.
The League of Legends MMO is still awaiting an official release date.
First, Riot was already hard at work building the MMO long before Greg Street made his announcement. This could therefore move the timeline back a bit, and potentially establish a release date for the game in early 2024. However, it is more likely that the release date of this new major LoL game will be set for mid -2024.
Once Riot has a more solid idea of when they might release an alpha for their game, we’ll likely hear about it.
While players have high expectations regarding the MMO, the lead developer has asked them to tone them down a bit. He argued that “there is no guarantee” that the League of Legends MMO will actually see the light of day.
“We’re optimistic, but you never know until it happens,” he added on Twitter.
There is no guarantee this game will ship. We are optimistic, but you just never know until it does. However assuming it does, this will be the fourth major franchise I have worked on (AoE, WoW, LoL), and likely the last. And I am very okay with that. It will be a good final act.
— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) April 8, 2022
All regions of Runeterra
The second most important factor besides the arrival of the game is the universe that we will be able to explore in the MMO, Runeterra. Fortunately, Riot has worked hard to make League of Legends as rich as possible, with many famous regions.
In fact, there are thirteen named zones from which Riot chooses champions for its flagship title. We’ll likely see these same regions used for the MMO.
The main regions could be more “civilized” areas like Demacia, Noxus or Piltover, while fantasy regions like Bilgewater, Shurima and the charming town of Bandle can also be important for online play.
Here are the 13 regions of Runeterra:
- Bandle Town
- Bilgewater
- Demacia
- Ionia
- Ixtal
- Noxus
- Piltover
- Dark Islands
- Shurima
- Targon
- Freljord
- Nothingness
- Fence
Riot Games may decide to start with only some of these zones, they’ve only selected eight for Legends of Runeterra so far, but we expect them to eventually add all of the iconic League of Runeterra zones Legends in the MMO.
There are many fantastic locations in the world of League of Legends that an MMO could explore.
Riot MMO map
There has been no official confirmation that the League of Legends MMO will exactly copy Runeterra, but we’d be quite surprised if it didn’t.
This means that players will be able to navigate the huge and fantastic universe.
Here’s what the League of Legends MMO map could look like in-game:
The complete map of Runeterra, the world of League of Legends.
Possible League of Legends Class System
If Riot Games sticks to the same design as other popular MMORPG titles, we can expect to see a collection of “professions,”or classes, that define each player’s character.
These often boil down to standard fantasy tropes such as Warrior, Healer, and Mage. Although LoL is a bit different, each champion takes on more or less similar roles like these.
Here are each of the LoL classes and subclasses at the moment:
| Tanks | Initiators, Guardians |
| Fighters | Colossi, Blitzers |
| Killers | Assassins, Skirmishers |
| Mages | Burst Mages, Battle Mages, Gunner Mages |
| Controllers | Enchanters, Trappers |
| Shooters |
If Riot chooses the six main classes, Fighter, Mages, Shooter, Killer, Tank and Controllers, that already seems like a great variety to start with!
As with regions, however, it’s unclear what the League of Legends developers could possibly decide. Riot could choose to forgo LoL classes altogether or just pick a few of the most popular ones to start. We’ll have to wait and see.
League of Legends fans will likely have to choose a “class” in the new MMO title.
Will Riot’s MMO have raids?
The answer is simple: yes!
Lead producer Greg Street has admitted that, at least in his eyes, the endgame raids included in Riot’s new MMO RPG League of Legends will be one of the most important factors. He even added that he will be “dejected” if the team fails to deliver on the promise of late-game fights.
“Anyone who knows me from my early days in World of Warcraft knows that I love dungeons and raids as a player.” he added.
However, Riot has yet to reveal what LoL’s MMO raids will look like. For our part, we expect to see Summoner’s Rift’s iconic monster, Baron Nashor, as one of the first raid bosses.
LoL’s iconic monster, Baron Nashor, would be a perfect boss for a raid on Riot’s MMO.
Riot warns that “not everyone will like” the title
Recently, Riot Games issued a warning about their new MMORPG “not everyone is going to like”the planned open-world title Runeterra.
“One thing I can say about the MMORPG is that not all of you will like every feature,” warned the title’s executive producer, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street. “We are going to make choices that you may not agree with. Different players want different things in their games.”
“Some of you may not like the game at all. That’s okay. We will also make a ton of mistakes. However, we are prepared to pivot if the design does not meet the objectives.”
One thing I can say about “unannounced” MMORPG is that you won’t all love every feature in it. We’re going to make some choices that you may not agree with. Players want different things in their games. That’s fine. Some of you (shudder) may not love the game at all. Also fine.
— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) May 20, 2021
The development team is expanding
After Ghostcrawler ‘s tweet confirming the arrival of the MMO where he declared last December: “My recent work at Riot has been helping develop the League of Legends universe, which we will need. Because it’s finally time for that reveal. My new job is to release a big (some might say huge) game that many of you, and many Rioters, have asked us to make” Mark joins the development team:
Personal News:
I’ll be joining the MMO team as the Game Director!
Excited to go on this next epic adventure with you all. pic.twitter.com/lANaSdQVdU
— Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) April 16, 2021
“I will be joining the team working on the MMO as Game Director! Excited to be part of this next epic adventure with you all.”
- Read also – LoL tier list | The best champions in ranked
And so here’s everything we know about the League of Legends MMO so far, including its expected release date, possible regions, expected LoL classes, and what the Runeterra map might look like.
A worrying departure
On March 7, 2023, fans on the lookout for any news on Riot Games’ MMO were able to discover the worrying departure of a member of the development team and not the least!
Indeed, it was the executive producer of the MMO project who took the plunge, explaining his decision by “a combination of personal and professional considerations” .
Hey internet. Thanks for all the support over the past few months while I was afk
I am back now with some big news to share: I have decided to step down from my role at Riot Games
— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) March 7, 2023
If the departure of such an important member of the team while the game is only in the pre-production phase could somewhat disconcert the giant Riot, Greg Street was still optimistic about the future of the project that ‘he leaves:
“The MMO is in good hands, and now is the right time to hand over the reins before the project enters the next phase.”
This article will be regularly updated to keep you informed of the latest news regarding the MMORPG from Riot Games.
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