Los Angeles based Riot Games has recently secured an additional $8 million in funding. The funding comes from Chinese online services company Tencent, most known for their QQ instant messenger client, Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital. Tencent will also be publishing Riot’s upcoming League of Legends game in China.
Riot Games, a fatfoogoo client, is now in the closed beta stage with their League of Legends fighter. Currently, 50,000 players are engaged in the testing phase, and Riot plans on an October official launch date. The free-to-play title is loosely based on a popular Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients, and builds upon the popular peer-vs.-peer form of play. Up to six players can battle on one side, where they play as “summoners” that conjure up a wide variety of champions that fight in a myriad of varied battlegrounds. Riot states that the title is not an MMORPG, but contains a number of persistent game elements that are in the spirit of an MMORPG. “That is to say, while a large aspect of the game will be session-based battles, there will also be persistent elements, such as the Summoner, abilities, and levels that exist continuously throughout the game.”
Again, League of Legends is a free-to-play title, however if players want to customize their characters, or purchase time-saving features, a full featured in-game, microtransaction based in-game item shop is available. Riot has provided two types of available currency: one that can me earned through experience, or, one that can be purchased through real money transactions. Through this monetization option, Riot is preventing the pay-to-pwn stigma, and in the eyes of most gamers, provides a better balanced/fair play form of in-game spending.
In an interview with Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat, Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky said, “that the investment was attractive because the company had created an addictive game that players could revisit again and again with endless variety. The risk is that players might get bored with this kind of repetitive game play.” He also added, “They [Riot Games] nailed a model where you combined the game play of a hardcore game with the monetization of casual online games. When you go after serious gamers who pay $60 for a game, you have to realize that they have a certain expectation for game quality. The deal with Tencent validates the progress the company has made toward this goal.”
With Riot’s staff of core members hailing from a number of former hits including, Ulitma Online, Dungeon Siege, Jak & Dakter, Heroes of Might & Magic, Neverwinter Nights 2, Sly Cooper and Total Annihilation, it’s a fair bet to say that Riot can and will deliver on a console quality experience at a free-to-play price. Naturally, we’re a little biased, but from what we’ve seen thus far, let’s just put it this way: prepare for all your preconceptions about what a free-to-play is and what the quality standards are, to be shattered.
League of Legends has a projected October release date. More information and beta signups are available at leagueoflegends.com.
Tags: benchmark capital, firstmark capital, league of legends, microtransaction, qq instant messenger, real money transaction, riot games, tencent, warcraft iii
