League of Legends is apparently going mobile soon.
According to the international news site Reuters, three anonymous sources have disclosed that both Riot Games and their owners Tencent are planning a mobile version of the popular MOBA title.
Tencent has wanted a mobile version of League of Legends for a while, with Riot actually rejecting a proposal to develop a mobile version a few years ago. To compensate, Tencent developed Honor of Kings for the Chinese market in 2015.
Tencent would later bring Honor of Kings to the West, renaming it to Arena of Valor. According to Reuters' sources, Arena of Valor created a small rift between the two companies.
Arena of Valor has not been a massive success for Tencent, which has once again gone to Riot Games to develop a mobile version of the game, despite Honor of Kings' success in Asian markets.
According to the sources, the mobile version of League of Legends has been in development for about a year. No release date is currently planned, with a source saying it is unlikely to be released in 2019.
League of Legends has been on the market for ten years now, and is one of the most successful MOBAs of all time. However, analysts have pointed out that the game has begun to slow down in terms of making revenue.
According to Reuters, who pulled data from Statista, League of Legends made over $1.4 billion in revenue, in 2018, but that total is down about 21% from 2017.
“League of Legends is not doing as well as it used to and so Riot badly needs a new way to monetise the game, especially considering that it is Riot’s only game,” stated Gu Tianyi, an Amsterdam-based analyst with game tracker Newzoo.
Other problems have also plagued Riot in recent months, including a walkout by several Riot employees over the company trying to block current employees from taking legal action regarding current and former employees suing the company over gender discrimination.
Tianyi also points out that Honor of Kings may be stiff competition for League of Legends. Despite the international presence of League, Honour of Kings already has 140 million active users in Asia, including about 57% of the Chinese gaming market.
What are your thoughts on all of this? Do you think League of Legends Mobile is real? Leave your comments below.
