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In an interview with Variety, Riot Games’ co-founder Mark Merrill says that he is working with Riot devs to create their next big title after League of Legends.

Merrill says that their next game will be “the same sort of fan-driven ultra niche title that made its initial game such a spectacular success”. Now, ever since Riot Games released their uber-popular PC game League of Legends, they have not been able to work on any other title. Also, all of their focus has been on their flagship game and for good reason. League of Legends has been one of the most popular video game titles in recent history.

However, the Riot Games co-founder says that they are planning to branch out and create a new game soon. “We’re emerging from being the ‘League of Legends’ company to whatever it will be in the future. We’ve been working for such a long period of time on so many things.”, he states. He also says that Riot plans to release a bunch of big games every single decade.

Mark Merrill teases a League of Legends MMO?

On July 24th, the League of Legends website would debut an interactive map of Runeterra, the fictional land from the lore behind League of Legends. It had incredible detail, from small, previously unknown towns to recognizable landmarks and cities. They also would provide huge backstory behind each location, and resembled a map from an MMO game. Furthermore, a tweet from Merrill would send the League community into a frenzy:

With the amount of backstory and lore behind every character and faction in the game, it is completely possible that Riot Games would create an MMO. The community reaction was instant and overly positive. Many people would state that the League of Legends universe was a perfect setting for an MMO, due to its size and detailed world. Also, after Merrill’s comments to Variety, it seems an MMO is not completely out of the question. “The reality at Riot is that we are exploring lots of different games. We have a whole bunch of RND teams exploring different opportunities that we think would resonate with players.”, Merrill says.

Competing with World of Warcraft

When asked if Riot Games was working on a massively multiplayer online game, Merrill would avoid the question, also mentioning how they would be in direct competition with World of Warcraft.

The question that is really interesting and relevant is, ‘What does the future of MMOs look like?’ I think we have a view, others have a view, players have a view. ‘World of Warcraft’ continues to be a dominating game. There is a really good argument that going head-to-head with ‘WoW’ may not be the best move, but who knows. We’re exploring a lot of stuff, thinking about a lot of stuff.

World of Warcraft is currently one of the most popular MMO’s in the world, ever since its initial release in 2004. There is no telling though, how a possible League of Legends MMO would stack up against one of the longest running MMO’s in gaming history. However, with how popular League of Legends is, it is a good guess that an MMO in the same setting with familiar characters would be an instant hit.


What do you think about Riot Games branching out from League of Legends? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! If you want more League of Legends content, check us out here!