It was eleven years ago when Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill and Brandon “Ryze” Beck founded Riot Games as a small development house to pursue their dreams. Little did they know that their core and only product, League of Legends, would end up as one of the most popular and lucrative free-to-play games in the market.
During this time, Riot Games has evolved into a massive behemoth. It currently holds more than twenty offices around the world with thousands of employees. The company is also backed by Tencent Holdings Limited, a Chinese investment corporation that is the largest in its division.
However, despite excessive funding and a consumer-base in the millions, Riot Games has never branched itself to release a second game. It continues to move on with League of Legends, but that might be on the verge of changing.
In a surprising press release earlier today, the company announced that Merrill and Beck have decided to step down from their respective management roles in order to focus on more games.
“Growth also meant that the majority of our time is allocated to managing the company rather than focusing on creating incredible experiences for players, which is what we really love to do,” the founders explained. “In our new roles we’re going back to focusing on what is ultimately the most important thing we do: making great games.”
Their absence will be filled by chief operating officer Dylan Jadeja, chief technical officer Scott Gelb, and president Nicolo Laurent. All three have been part of the company for a long time and equally responsible for where Riot Games is today.
Besides League of Legends, Riot Games has only developed and published a tabletop spin-off product called Mechs vs. Minions last year. The company is known to have a large research and development team for new projects. Perhaps the founders have finally discovered their next game that will hopefully be as successful as League of Legends has been.
Previously, the founders pointed out that Riot Games is not driven by external business goals where they must meet revenue thresholds. The company is rather passionate about creative meaningful experiences.
