Riot MMO: News, Release Date Estimation And More

Riot Games has been teasing us with the development of a League of Legends MMORPG set in the rich world of Runeterra. So far, there haven't been many details released about the game’s content. However, drawing from the extensive lore of League of Legends and Legends of Runeterra, we can start to speculate about the adventures and features that might be included in the Riot MMO.Recently, there's been talk of a major shift in the project's direction, with hints that Project F will offer a gaming experience unlike anything we've seen before from Riot. This pivot could mean a whole new approach to gameplay, setting it apart from traditional expectations of what an MMORPG should be.Developing an MMORPG is no small task; it's one of the most complex types of games to create, requiring vast amounts of time and resources. Following Riot’s recent layoff of over 500 employees and a strategic change, questions arise about their capacity to pull off such an ambitious project. Despite these challenges, here’s what we can look forward to in the game, keeping in mind the innovative track record of Riot Games.

Riot MMO: Release Date Estimation

Riot Games hasn't announced a specific release date for their new League of Legends MMO yet. In a detailed update on their progress and plans for the future, Riot revealed that "Project F" won't proceed with their previous plans, but instead undergo a promising turn in directions. In order to keep focus on the work ahead of them, Riot also announced that they will be "going dark" for several years. Therefore, we probably won't get any updates anytime soon.

Creating such a big game takes a lot of time to get right, especially because fans are expecting a lot from the game's rich story that has been developed over the years.

Let's look at how long it takes to make an MMORPG: World of Warcraft, the biggest MMORPG ever, was first announced in 2001. However, Blizzard needed three more years to launch it in late 2004, and even then, it didn't have all its content. Considering the many big updates that WoW has had over nearly 20 years, Riot has their work cut out for them. They need to make League fans happy and also stand up to Blizzard's top MMORPG. Many other games have tried this – and didn't make it.

We think Riot might need even more time than Blizzard did for the original WoW. Based on what we know so far and their recent development reset, we're guessing the Riot MMO will probably be released around 2027 or 2028.

Riot MMO: Gameplay Expectations

Riot has been keeping pretty quiet about the gameplay of the upcoming MMO, but we do think that it will play like any other MMO, with different classes, creatures and regions playing a key part in the upcoming game. With their shift from previous plans, Riot shared that they want this MMO to be "something that truly feels like a significant evolution of the genre" ~ Marc Merrill.

After a lot of reflection and discussion, we've decided to reset the direction of the project some time ago. 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...

— Tryndamere (@MarcMerrill) March 20, 2024

Potential Playable Races

Runeterra is a vast world with extremely different characters, champions and races. None of the races we will name have been confirmed to be in the upcoming Riot Games MMO, but we do believe these could be playable in the game once it is released.

• Humans
• Vastaya
• Yordle
• Minotaur

These seem like the most likely candidates, but there will probably be many more species that will be playable. We could be playing creatures like Ascended, Celesitals or maybe even Spectres, but that is just speculation at the moment as Riot have not revealed anything concrete.

A League of Legends Inspired Runeterra Map

This is one of the few things we can pretty much confirm already. The map of the MMORPG is most likely going to be the same map as that of Runeterra which we already know. The world of Runeterra is vast, with two major continents and several islands surrounding them.

These are the thirteen named regions of Runeterra, which we'll probably see in the LoL MMORPG as well:

• Bandle City
• Bilgewater
• Demacia
• Ionia
• Ixtal
• Noxus
• Piltover
• Shadow Isles
• Shurima
• Targon
• The Freljord
• The Void
• Zaun

Whether the Void is going to be a playable area could be debatable. This could be a dungeon area in which players have to go to farm resources. In World of Warcraft, many known zones from Warcraft 3 were playable right away from the start, with some missing ones becoming available with later patches either as quest zones or as a dungeon or raid. Riot will probably follow a similar path.

What could be likely though, is that we will get the same eight regions as in the Riot Games card game Legends of Runeterra. If Riot chooses to go with the LoR regions, then we might not get a separate Void region, but will encounter the Void throughout the journey of the MMORPG.

With the release of Nilah, as well as the League of Legends novel 'Ruination' we also found out about an eastern continent with countries like Camavore and Kathkan. These could also be regions added into the game at a later date and added in as an expansion.

Potential Classes In The Riot MMO

Classes are an important aspect of any MMORPG, so deciding which class your character has is going to be key. If you prefer a magic user, a tank or an assassin, MMOs have something for everyone and the Riot Games MMO probably won’t be any different.

Thankfully, League of Legends already has quite the inventory of classes and subclasses, so the MMORPG team will just have to copy those over into their own game for players to select from. We think, there will be six main classes, with most having two sub-classes to pick from.

If you’ve played League of Legends, then you’ll have some idea as to which champion belongs into which category, so you can already imagine what you’ll want your MMO character to play like, right?

However, all of these thoughts about races and classes in the Riot MMO are unconfirmed at this time. LoL content creator Necrit had the chance to interview some of the MMO's lead developers in July 2023, and they have remained pretty vague about how the system of races and classes will look like inside the MMO.

Will The LoL MMORPG Be Free To Play?

Thus far, all of Riot Games’ main titles have been free to play. Therefore, we will bet some money on it that this MMORPG will also be free to play with in-game purchases. Since this is dubbed the League of Legends MMO, many of the features from LoL should also be applied to the MMO.

Maintenance of a game of this size will be difficult and costly, but it will likely be a free game, like every other Riot Games title so far. However, none of this is confirmed yet. Lost Ark is also a free to play MMO, but with in-game purchases for skins and other cosmetics, we can expect a similar model to be implemented in this MMO.

The other option, of course, would be a paid subscription model like World of Warcraft has had since its release. Right now, a monthly WoW subscription costs you between 13 and 15 Dollars a month – this could be too much for League players that are used to free to play models ever since.

Will The Riot MMO Be Canon?

Greg Street, former head of the MMO project at Riot Games, stated that the MMO will be canon when asked about it on Twitter.

"Think about it this way. If we’re successful and have millions of players playing hundreds of hours with just as much time discussing story and characters with their friends and online, it will become the focus of the lore. MMOs have a way of doing that."

Recently, Riot also revealed their plans of creating a unified Runeterran lore across all of their titles – excluding VALORANT – so it would make sense for them to make the MMO also canon.

MMO healing is a topic on which I have a lot of thoughts and at least some experience. It's hard. If too much is on the healer, they get blamed and their life is stressful. If there isn't enough, then the healer gets bored. And there is always the solo question.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) July 2, 2021

Riot MMO End-Game To Feature Dungeons And Raids

If you managed to play through the game and level your character up to max, then there will, of course, be the dreaded end game. Former Lead Producer, Greg Street, has already stated that there will be dungeons and raids:

"Anyone that knows me from my World of Warcraft dev days would know that I love dungeons and raids as a player"

So, if you’re worried about the endgame, know that Riot is working on making the dungeons and raids exciting for you to enjoy! It is one of the most important parts of a game, and Riot wants to deliver!

Who Is Working On The Riot Games MMO?

After Greg Street, who was the lead on the MMO, left Riot in March 2023, Fabrice Condominas is now taking over as new executive producer. Having led major projects at Riot, BioWare, and EA, he brings a fresh perspective and a shared commitment to the project.

Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, the lead quest designer of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 has also signed onto the project, which can only mean that there will be some pretty cool quests in the game.

For anyone who has complained about champion balance throughout the years, Mark Yetter, former Lead Gameplay Designer of League of Legends also joined the MMO team as Game Director in 2021.

You can also work on the project. Riot has multiple jobs and is always hiring for the MMO, so make sure to check their website if you’re qualified for any of the job and if you’re interested.

Hopefully we find out more about this exciting project Riot Games is working on and that we get to experience the world of Runeterra in the next few years. We have the lore, we have the base for it all, now it just has to come together in this big massively multiplayer online role-playing game.