29 May 2019
Reuters, of all places, broke the news last week that Riot Games is currently working with parent company Tencent on an official mobile version of their massively-popular MOBA League of Legends, although it’s as yet unclear when we’ll be able to get our hands on it.
As the Reuters story explains, the idea of creating a mobile version of Riot’s hit game has been a tendentious one between the two companies, with Riot initially resisting the idea of bringing League of Legends to phones and Tencent pushing the idea, based on its massive success with its similarly-structured mobile game Honour of Kings. However, the western version of Honour of Kings, Arena of Valor, has been a bit of a flop outside Asian markets and Tencent has given up promoting it in the west just two years after its launch, according to a report by Nintendo Life.
With revenues for League of Legends slipping – mind, it still cleared $1.4 billion last year alone – Riot is now more open to the idea, and one of Reuters’ sources says the project has been in the works for a year.
However, another source says not to expect a mobile League of Legends this year.