Tencent and Riot Games build mobile version of League of Legends
Beijing/Shangai — China’s Tencent is working with its US unit Riot
Games to develop a mobile version of League of Legends, the world’s most
popular desktop-based game, three sources with knowledge of the matter
said.
Relations between Tencent and Riot have long been strained over how
best to capitalise on the game, in which players hack and slash their
way through battle arenas. Riot rejected a Tencent proposal years ago to
develop a mobile version, one of the sources said.
Tencent then developed a similar mobile offering, Honour of Kings,
for China that was launched in November 2015 and has become the world’s
highest-grossing multiplayer online battle arena game.
But in doing so, it created tensions with Riot that were further
inflamed when Tencent launched an adaptation of Honour of Kings, called
Arena of Valor, for overseas markets in 2016 and 2017, sources have
said. Arena of Valor has been regarded as a flop by some analysts after
failing to click with Western gamers.
One of the sources said Tencent and Riot have been working on a
mobile version of League of Legends for more than a year, though a
separate source said it is unlikely to be launched in 2019.
The sources declined to be identified as details of the project are
confidential. A spokesperson for Tencent declined to comment.
Representatives for Riot did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
‘Like the World Cup’
While all three titles have similar gameplay and design, albeit with
different characters, League of Legends has the biggest reach and, at
nearly 10 years old, the longest history.
“League of Legends is like the World Cup whereas Honour of Kings is just the Asia Cup,”
one of the sources said. The game brought in $1.4bn in revenue in 2018, though that was down
21% from a year earlier, according to data provider Statista.
“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,” said Gu Tianyi, an Amsterdam-based analyst with
game tracker Newzoo.
A mobile version would likely bring in more Asian players, who tend
to prefer mobile-based games while Western gamers tend to prefer
desktops or consoles for more sophisticated gameplay.
Mobile games accounted for 57% of video-game revenue in China in 2018 but only 36% in the US market, according to Newzoo.
Gu added, however, it might be hard for a mobile League of Legends to
achieve the same level of success in China as Honour of Kings without
innovation in gameplay as the market for battle-arena games is quite
saturated.
Honour of Kings had more than 140-million active monthly users in March, Newzoo said.
A mobile League of Legends would also allow Tencent and Riot to
organise more international competitions. They established a joint
venture called Tengjing Sports in January to run e-sport tournaments and
market League of Legends-related products.
League of Legends is the most popular desktop-based game ranked by
number of unique users in a month, with 24.7% of all core PC gamers in
the world playing the game in April, Newzoo said, without disclosing an
absolute figure.
The League of Legends World Championship Finals was 2018’s biggest
e-sports tournament by live hours watched across Twitch and YouTube
Gaming, boasting 81.1-million hours watched.
Tencent bought a majority stake in Riot in 2011 and made it fully owned in 2015.
Reuters
