The creator and developer of League of Legends (LoL), Riot Games, has been fully bought out by its main investor, Tencent. This comes years after the Chinese company purchased a majority stake in Riot back in 2011.
At the time, the Wall Street Journal was reporting that Tencent bought up 85% of the shares in Riot Games for over $350-million. The day has come for the investors to take full control and buy up the rest of the shares in Riot.
“Our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games,” the studio said in a website post. “This allows us to move away from a Riot equity program towards a cash-based incentive program that allows Rioters to share in Riot’s success.”
Depending on how you read it, that may or may not seem like a big boost in confidence. With the massive success that League of Legends has achieved, I’m sure there won’t be too much to worry about, but hopefully, those working at Riot are also not affected and can continue to work and create a great game.
Tencent may not be a household name in the Western world, but they are a big presence in gaming. They have purchased shares from many other big name developers like Epic Games and Blizzard.
This company-wide change is happening after Riot Games announced two months ago that it will be steering LoL further in the direction of the eSports genre. While already a very popular game in that space, changes to the preseason, matchmaking improvements, new items, and advanced customization hope to breathe some more life into the MOBA.
Do you think the Riot Games buyout will have a significant impact? Sound off in the comments and let us know.
