Riot Games has not had a lot of positive press as of late, but one of the loudest criticisms the studio has faced for years has been the lack of games in their own portfolio. The continued success of League of Legends, the popular MOBA that first launched in 2009, has snowballed into a massive phenomenon, with almost all of their developmental efforts focusing on new gameplay modes and even rumored mobile version of League of Legends in the works.
However, that has changed today. After some long-standing rumors that Riot has been working on a new title, it was officially confirmed in an interview with Tom Cannon, a Riot employee and one of the founders of the fighting game tournament series EVO , that Riot Games is working on a fighting game.
https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1157365862707466240
"Fighting games deserve to be enjoyed by way more people. As big as things are, we think they have the potential to get bigger." stated Cannon, referring to his previous project, the Robot fighting game Rising Thunder. Rising Thunder was a canceled fighting game being developed by Radiant Entertainment, a development studio that spearheaded Cannon, along with with his brother Tom and former Capcom developer Seth Killian.
Radiant Entertainment was acquired by Riot Games in 2016, which canceled Rising Thunder, leading the free-to-play fighting game to cease development. The Cannon brothers would later release Rising Thunder: Community Edition, essentially a freeware version of the game for players to download for themselves.
Both Cannon brothers and Killian still work at Riot today, so it is almost certain that they are spearheading the new fighting game for the studio.
No real details have been given about this new fighting game, but if it is released, it will be the first game outside of League of Legends that Riot Games has ever worked on. No doubt more information will be released in the future.
What are your thoughts on all of this? Want to play a fighting game by Riot Games? Leave your comments below.
