Tencent and Riot Games could be cooking up something huge.
Riot Games and Tencent are developing a mobile version of League of Legends, according to a Reuters report.
Sources told Reuters that both parties have been working on the mobile version for “more than a year”, but it’s unlikely to launch in 2019.
Tencent and Riot’s partnership isn’t all dandy, though. According to one source, Riot Games rejected a Tencent proposal to develop a mobile version years ago.
Tencent then took matters into its own hands and developed its own – incredibly similar – mobile offering, “Honour of Kings” for the Chinese market, which has since become the world’s highest grossing multiplayer MOBA.
It doesn’t stop there either. Tencent further inflamed the situation by creating “Arena of Valor” for the overseas markets, and while it has been considered a flop in the West, it’s nonetheless another competitor in a crowded market.
Put simply, Riot Games and Tencent have set aside their past differences in the hopes they’ll create one of the biggest mobile games on the planet. Riot Games has an immensely successful IP in League of Legends, so combine this with Tencent’s gargantuan stake in the Chinese market and it could rake in the big bucks for both parties.
The mobile MOBA market is pretty oversaturated, but the strength of the League of Legends brand will likely be more than enough to bring existing PC players on board, and even convert fans of other games like Honour of Kings – awkward.
