‘League Of Legends’ Heading To Mobile, Report Claims

Riot Games, maker of the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game “League Of Legends,” is working with its parent company Tencent to bring the famed multiplayer online game to mobile, a report claims.

Citing unnamed sources knowledgeable about the matter, Reuters reported that China’s Tencent and U.S. gaming company Riot are working together to develop a “League Of Legends” version for mobile.

Tencent’s moves

One of those sources said that about a decade ago, Tencent already proposed the same idea to Riot, but the latter rejected that proposal. Refused, Tencent then went to develop a mobile game titled “Honor of Kings” and released it for the Chinese market.

“Honor of Kings” became very popular since its launch in November 2015 and became the highest grossing MOBA game in 2018, Variety reported. This game, known in the west as “Arena of Valor,” was ported to the Nintendo Switch last year, and has seen more than a million downloads in less than three months since it was ported.

Working together

Despite being considered a “flop” in the western market, “Arena of Valor” created tensions between Riot and Tencent. This is because Tencent’s offering is in direct competition with Riot’s sole title in the western market.

This tension, however, appears to have dissipated as the two companies are now reportedly working with one another for quite some time. Reuters’ sources said the two companies have been working together on the mobile version of “League Of Legends” for more than a year now.

Aside from that, both companies have each filed lawsuits against another company that released a MOBA title that’s very similar to “League Of Legends.”

According to a report from eSports news site Dot Esports, Riot in 2017 filed a copyright-related lawsuit against Shanghai Moonton Technology for a game titled “Mobile Legends,” a popular mobile MOBA that looked and felt similar to “League Of Legends.” The case was dismissed in California, as the case would be heard better in China.

Tencent filed a separate copyright-related lawsuit against Moonton Technology in China. Tencent eventually won the case in 2018 and Moonton had to pay it roughly $2.9 million USD.

With both companies working to bring “League Of Legends” to mobile, more players, particularly in China and Asia in general, are likely to play it. The mobile version, however, is unlikely to be released in 2019, Reuters’ sources said.