League of Legends MMO Postponed to Several Years

As Riot announced in December 2020 that it was developing a Runeterra MMO, fans have been anxious to find out what exactly that will look like. Now, it’ll take another five years before it sees the light of day, as the company has reset the project as a whole.

The League of Legends MMO has had an interesting development cycle, as it was officially announced in 2020 with former World of Warcraft developer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street at the helm.

Several things have changed since then. Street leaves the project in March of 2023 due to “personal and professional reasons.” Street’s studio, Fantastic Pixel Castle, is now building a new massively multiplayer online game.

In the aftermath of Street’s departure, Riot’s Runeterra MMO has barely been discussed publicly – till now. Riot’s Marc Merril took to Twitter yesterday morning to explain the company’s radio silence and announce that Runeterra development has been “reset.”.

“We know many of you are hungry for news about the [Riot Games MMO] project, and we really appreciate your patience and the incredible support you’ve shown us so far,” Merrill says on Twitter. He continued:

“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.”

According to Merrill, the team believes players want to play something new, not a “runeterra-style MMO.” Therefore, Merrill says the team will do an “important evolution of the genre” to achieve its goals.

“This is a huge challenge, but one that our team of deeply passionate MMO players and game development veterans is incredibly motivated to pursue,” he added.

Merrill introduced Fabrice Condominas as Riot’s executive producer, following his time at BioWare, EA, and Riot. In addition, Vijay Thakkar will remain on the leadership team as the MMO’s technical director.

Consequently, Merrill acknowledged that news will be scarce—if not nonexistent—for a time, as a result of all this resetting. He cautioned that this reset will probably mean a dark period “for several years.”