Posts Tagged ‘Brandon Beck’

Razer and Riot Games partner to enhance League of Legends experience

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Chances are, if you take your gaming seriously, you’ve invested in a quality mouse and/or keyboard combo. If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft, options abound, but outside the WoW realm, the pickin’s get rather slim. And if developing a partnership with (arguably) THE gaming peripheral of choice is any indication of ‘arriving’, well then Riot Games’ League of Legends has struck gold.

RazerLoLRazer has joined forces with Riot Games to develop special in-game items, a gaming grade desktop skin, as well as a Razer sponsored tournament program for League of Legends.

The first product to be released by the Razer/Riot Games collaboration will be the Sphex gaming surface that will features League of Legends artwork. Adding to the tie-in, special promotional codes will also be soon included in packaging of the recently released Razer Abyssus optical gaming mouse. These promo codes will unlock exclusive League of Legends Runes. The first of these Runes will be the “Razer Mark of Precision” which grants +2.23% Critical Damage and can be used at level 1. The second exclusive Rune is the “Razer Quintessence of Speed” which grants +1.5% movement speed and can be used at level 10.

Not satisfied with just a mouse and gaming mat, Razer will add to the excitement surrounding Riot’s highly anticipated Twisted Treeline map by hosting a 3 vs. 3 team tournament with the winning team receiving a major cash prize.

“We are very excited to be teaming up with the creators of DotA Allstars on their new League of Legends project. We love this game and this is a partnership that we will totally enjoy,” said Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff, president, Razer USA. “Our fans will receive increased precision and accuracy using Razer products to experience League of Legends at its best.”

“Collaborating with Razer will further the mission of both companies to provide the best possible gaming experience through innovation,” said Brandon Beck, CEO, Riot Games. “As a company with competitive gaming in our DNA, teaming up with Razer feels like a natural fit and we think our players will be excited about the exclusive promo codes to unlock Champions as part of our contest series with Razer.”

According to the official Razer/League of Legends landing page, the specially marked boxed mice should hit retails stores (in North America and Europe) on May 1st. All in all, this is a great score for Riot Games and League of Legends. Congrats guys – looking forward to some exclusive Runes! :)

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Riot Games’ League of Legends garners over 1 million downloads

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Los Angeles based Riot Games has recently announced that their debut title League of Legends has surpassed the 1 million downloads mark. Only three months since it’s launch, League of Legends has seen downloads primarily from North America and Europe. This news adds another plume in Riot Games’ cap, as League of Legends, as the title has received several awards from various video game press outlets, including PC Gamer, IGN, and GameSpy.

Additionally, Riot Games took this occasion to announce that these 1 million League of Legends players have spent over 18 million hours in the game. On a daily basis, more than 150,000 players in North America and Europe compete in League of Legends.

“The passion of our more than 1 million-member League of Legends community and their positive support has driven the recognition from media and the video game industry,” said Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO of Riot Games. “This recognition and Riot Games’ ability to deliver high quality online free-to-play games serves as tremendous momentum as we expand the game globally in 2010.”

Highlights of Riot Games’ League of Legends awards:

  • Best Strategy Game – IGN.com
  • Best Multiplayer Game – IGN.com
  • PC Game of the Year – GameSpy.com
  • DotA – Style Game of the Year – PC Gamer
  • MMO Game of the Year – NeoGAF.com
  • Strategy Game of the Year – GameTrailers.com
  • Best Strategy Game of E3 2009 – GameTrailers.com
  • RTS Game of the Year – GamersNexus.net

League of Legends is also up for the “Best Debut” award by the Game Developers Choice Awards 2010. Winners will be announced at the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 11.

“We are pleased that our debut title is growing so quickly and receiving this type of praise from the video games community,” added Marc Merrill, co-founder and president of Riot Games. “These awards, nominations, positive reviews and our large, vocal community show that League of Legends is one of the best online gaming experiences available and we are appreciative of the recognition.”

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Riot Games’ League of Legends beta now open

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

While we’re still 4 days short of the “official pre-season” opener for fatfoogoo client Riot Games’ highly anticipated League of Legends, the doors are now open to the beta program.

lolLeague of Legends is based upon a highly successful Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients, whereby players have a host of demons that they can then summon and engage in intense battles against each other. The game is free-to-play, and supported through various microtransactions, powered by fatfoogoo technology. “League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people’s minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free,” states Riot Games CEO and co-founder Brandon Beck.

The team at Riot has been working day and night on this ambitious project, and recently gave the game a complete user interface makeover, including new voices, and a tuned interface, similar to the Warcraft 3 engine that devoted DOTA fans will remember. The overhaul also includes a 3 player map that will focus on more intimate, intense battles whereby the player will have much more influence on the outcome of the match.

With quotes including “The gameplay is better than DotA,” from Hubert Thieblot, CEO of Curse.com and “Easy to pick up and play…insanely fun,” from worthplaying.com, and what we’ve seen on our end, it’s a forgone conclusion that League of Legends will not only please long time devoted DOTA fans, but is sure to bring in a whole new cluster of fans of Riot’s new gaming format – the MOBA, multiplayer online battle arena.

Now’s your chance to get the skinny on League of Legends before the official pre-season release. Beta signups and client download, again, a free-to-play game, are available directly from LeagueofLegends.com.

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League of Legends sets official October 27th release date, open beta soon

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

fatfoogoo client, and developers of the highly anticipated League of Legends, Riot Games have recently announced the official release date of October 27th on the title’s official message boards. This date will also serve as the official date of the retail version of this free-to-play title hitting store shelves.

Currently, the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) is in closed beta, but Riot Games plans an open beta invitation beginning later this month, ending with the official release. Although this will be the ‘official’ release date, Riot will be presenting the world with it’s own version of a soft launch, as the game will then be in a “pre-season” mode. This time period will be used by both players and developers as a time to get used to the game and play style, while the Riot folks work out any kinks or bugs in the game, and put the final polish on the product. According to the Riot Games post, “We believe that seasons are a great way to help facilitate competitive gaming and competitive communities.” The first official season of League of Legends will commence in the first half of 2010.

League of Legends is based upon a highly successful Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients, whereby players have a host of demons that they can then summon and engage in intense battles against each other. The game is free-to-play, and supported through various microtransactions, powered by fatfoogoo technology. “League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people’s minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free,” states Riot Games CEO and co-founder Brandon Beck.

In addition to the already in place cast of champions available to players, Riot has recently released details on two new champions:

Shaco, the Demon Jester

  • ShacoDeceive – Shaco stealths himself instantly and teleports to target location.
  • Jack In The Box– Shaco creates an animated Jack-in-the-Box at target location, which will wait, stealthed, to Fear nearby units and attack them when some come nearby
  • Two-Shiv Poison– Shaco’s Shivs passive poison targets on hit, giving them a miss chance and slowing them. He can throw his Shivs to deal damage and poison them.
  • Hallucinate [U] – Shaco creates an illusion of himself near him, which can attack nearby enemies. Upon death, it explodes, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
  • Backstab [P] – Shaco deals 30% bonus damage when striking from behind.

Heimerdinger, the Revered Inventor

  • HeimerdingerH-28G Evolution Turret – Heimerdinger lays down a machine gun turret. This turret gains experience from attacking units and can level-up, gaining boosted damage and armor.
  • Hextech Micro-Rockets – Heimerdinger fires a number of Champion seeking missiles, hitting random champions within it’s super long range
  • CH-1 Concussion Grenade– Heimerdinger lobs a grenade at a location, dealing damage to enemy units / turrets as well as stunning anyone directly hit and blinding surrounding units.
  • UPGRADE!!! [U] – Passively increases Cooldown Reduction; in addition increases Heimerdingers and his Evolution Turret’s Attack Speeds. Activate to heal and upgrade one of your Evolution Turrets to lvl 2 to gain Ur’Anium Rounds, or lvl 3 to gain Explosive Cartridges.
  • TechmaturgicalRepairBots [P] – Heimerdinger has increased Health Regen.
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Find out more about League of Legends at www.leagueoflegends.com.

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fatfoogoo POWERS E3 AWARD-WINNING TITLE, LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

fatfoogoo, the leading provider of in-game and online commerce ecosystems, today announced it would provide a complete e-commerce solution to Riot Games’ upcoming title League of Legends, available Fall 2009. E3 2009 Game Critics Award nominee and winner of GameTrailers.com best strategy game, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena title that will be one of the first large scale, western developed, core games designed from the start to be available to players for free.

top_logoThe large–scale and attentive support from fatfoogoo will include all facets of e-commerce related features such as: management of two stores – one online within the community site and one in-game, inventory management – storing all items, as well as taking care of pricing, promotions, rebates and vouchers at anytime. Payment processing includes working with all major credit card providers, handling branded pre-paid cards and e-wallet management for dual currencies – Influence Points and Riot Points.

“We’re excited that Riot Games is maximizing fatfoogoo’s online, in-game and complete e-commerce capabilities on a global level,” said Martin Herdina, co-founder and CEO, fatfoogoo. “Our software solution will provide Riot Games the highest quality in virtual goods technology available today with a quick and seamless implementation for the millions of players eagerly anticipating the launch.”

The game will be balanced and competitive for all players. In League of Legends, a player takes on the role of a Summoner, a gifted spell caster gaining Influence and Riot Points. While Influence Points will be earned simply by playing the game and used to unlock content to enhance the character’s power, only Riot Points will be available for purchase with real money. Players who spend money on Riot Points will enjoy additional conveniences and rare customization options.

This system of currencies and virtual goods will be powered exclusively by fatfoogoo’s customizable monetization solution. Offering a comprehensive and global e-commerce solution as well as back-end support for League of Legends, fatfoogoo is a natural choice for Riot Games.

“We set out to create League of Legends as an extremely high quality title and chose fatfoogoo for its complete and powerful e-commerce solutions,” said Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO, Riot Games. “fatfoogoo’s monetization software solution fits perfectly with our offering, enabling us to focus on delivering a fun and competitive strategy game to players in an extremely accessible way.”

Companies like Riot Games seek like-minded partners such as fatfoogoo when it comes to paving the way for today’s game while keeping an eye out for the future. With a big budget, high quality gameplay and free-to-play accessibility, Riot Games has designed a system that empowers the player with choices that deepen the level of the strategic thinking in the game. In addition to the highly anticipated U.S. launch supported by fatfoogoo, League of Legends will be available in Europe, Fall 2009 and in China, early 2010.

About fatfoogoo
fatfoogoo is the leading in-game commerce ecosystem for monetizing online games, social networks and virtual worlds. fatfoogoo’s solutions allow both publisher-to-publisher and player-to-player financial interaction, as well as traditional user and subscription management. Publishers can choose white label turnkey solutions or individually configured modules. Founded in 2006 by telecommunications veterans, Daniel Petri and Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo is headquartered in Austria and also has offices in the US and the UK. For more information, please visit www.fatfoogoo.com.

About Riot Games
Riot Games, Inc. (www.riotgames.com) is an independent Los Angeles-based video game development company, funded privately and through leading venture capital firms Benchmark and Firstmark. The studio was established in 2006 to develop innovative online next-generation titles for consoles and the PC. Comprised of industry veterans with a shared passion for creating fun, innovative gameplay, the company is currently developing League of Legends, which combines the best elements of the action role-playing and real-time strategy genres into a uniquely replayable and competitive multiplayer experience

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Riot Games’ League of Legends goes free-to-play

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

League of Legends already has an interesting history. Stemming from a Warcraft III Mod, now turned into a full game, and resting in the hands of Riot Games, the title logged yet another entry into it’s history books yesterday, when LA based Riot Games announced yesterday that LOL is going free to play. A bit of a turn on a dime, as Riot had only just month prior at E3, announced that the title would be available via download and retail stores in September. Looks like that download isn’t going to cost you a cent. w00t!

181In a nutshell, League of Legends is an action-strategy title with some strong RPG elements. Initially based on the Warcraft III ‘Defense of the Ancients’ type game, players take on the role of a Summoner, who then in turn calls forth a Champion to fight for him against other players.

The game will be completely free-to-play, but as is the de facto method of today’s genre, microtransaction upgrades will be available. Likewise, Riot still plans on a collectors pack edition that will be available for $29.99. This collector’s edition comes with unique skins, pre-unlocked champions, runes for enhancing characters, and $10 worth of Riot Points.

League of Legends will offer two distinct forms of in-game currency. Influence points are most similar to experience points in that they are earned simply by playing the game, and can be used to purchase runes that enhance player’s powers. Conversely, Riot Points can be purchased for real money and may be put to use towards new Champions and cosmetic enhancements. In the spirit of fairness (and overall game design), Riot states that the items made available through Riot Points will not give any one player (or players) a distinct advantage over any others.

“One of our goals at Riot has been to set a high quality bar for core games that are available for free online as we believe that a relentless focus on delivering tremendous value to online communities will earn player loyalty,” Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO, Riot Games, said. “League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people’s minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free.”

League of Legends has a scheduled release date for sometime in September. In addition to the initial release, Riot is already prepping for the games’ post release phase, in which the company plans on “new features, Champions, maps and additional content as suggested by the community.”

Stay tuned and keep up to date with League of Legends at: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/

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