As live service games grow, some publishers have been expanding even wider into realms like user-generated content. Roblox has built itself up on the efforts of developers, and Epic has been pushing Fortnite Creative with its own internal studios. But for League of Legends maker Riot Games, it seems like the company isn’t interested in its MOBA doing the same.
We attended a recent press event held by Riot Games, and got the opportunity to ask League leadership a few questions about the future of the game. Riot Games has already seen one big success in creating a game-within-a-game in Teamfight Tactics, so we asked if Riot would ever be interested in exploring UGC, outside the realm of its MOBA. Head of League studio Andrei van Roon says he’s less interested in UGC for League of Legends, at least.
“You know, it’s something we might pursue elsewhere in Riot at some point,” said van Roon. “But we feel a lot of what we’ve built on League, where we have strengths, what players are looking for, for us, are less about sort of building UGC platform and more about delivering particular types of experience, using these characters in a competitive or semi-competitive setting, playing to the strengths of MOBA, that action-strategy mix, etcetera.”
“I think UGC is primarily a platform and technology play,” said game director Pu Liu. “And I think it’s a fairly winner take all market. I think if I look at what Riot’s strengths are and our competitive advantages, I’m not going to go pick that fight with Epic. Maybe Andrei, my boss, would tell me we should. But yeah, I think it’s a technology platform play and not one that we’re likely to win.”
In the same Q+A session, Riot’s League leads note what game modes like Teamfight Tactics have done for League of Legends. The auto-chess variant was built inside of League‘s design space and lives, at least on PC, in the same client.
While it seems like Riot is interested in developing internally, it’s not opening its doors to broader creation. And maybe that’s a good thing; where Epic and Roblox could see lots of interest garnered through user creations, they could also tumble into new issues.
Still, Riot does seem keen to speak to new audiences. In the aforementioned Q+A, Liu notes that the League audience is aging up, and that League is not in the same situation it was 10 years ago. Projects like the card game Legends of Runeterra, fighting game 2XKO, and Netflix’s Arcane series all feel like ways of reaching out to new groups of fans.
