{"id":82758,"date":"2026-09-06T21:56:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82758"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:56:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T13:56:56","slug":"riot-co-founder-teases-the-league-of-legends-mmo-5-years-after-it-was-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=82758","title":{"rendered":"Riot Co-Founder Teases the League of Legends MMO 5 Years After It Was Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">League of Legends developer Riot Games is still bashing away on its MMO, which co-founder Mark Merrill recently described as the studio\u2019s \u201cgrail quest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Riot announced its MMO five years ago, in August 2021. Since then it\u2019s seen a number of changes and various high-profile developers exit the project. But speaking to Kinda Funny Games\u2019 Greg Miller at PAX, Merrill insisted it\u2019s still in the works. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cWe know what players\u2019 hopes and dreams are,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just on us as a team, and can we succeed in the execution?\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Merrill said Riot jokingly calls the MMO the \u201cgrail\u201d because \u201cf**k it, many a brave knight are gonna die on the grail quest. But f**k it, it\u2019s the grail, so let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cThat\u2019s the mindset that we really try to cultivate. And that is hard to do at scale,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut I think we\u2019re doing a reasonable job. And I think the future\u2019s incredibly bright.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It\u2019s fair to say Merrill\u2019s comments were met with a healthy dose of skepticism, particularly from fighting game fans. Riot recently announced its League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO, ends active development at the end of this year due to a lack of players. It only released late 2025, so you can understand where this sentiment is coming from.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cThey hyping up this MMO like they aren\u2019t just going to shoot it in the face after six months cause it won\u2019t be bigger than WoW,\u201d commented X \/ Twitter user and fighting game community member sl0th.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cIt\u2019s gonna release at the same time as a FF14 expansion for some reason and they\u2019ll kill it in three months because it didnt make a f***youillion dollars,\u201d added Shinhua.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cWhy would anyone be excited for anything they release when they fumbled 2XKO as hard as they did.\u201d commented Gil. \u201cNo faith they can handle a MMO when that&#8217;s 2x harder to please people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">League of Legends 2025 Cinematic Trailer: New Character Designs<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"A FIRST LOOK AT DARIUS IN THE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS 2025 CINEMATIC TRAILER.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Will the League MMO actually come out? In January, former <u>World of Warcraft<\/u> producer Raymond Bartos joined Riot Games, giving fans renewed hope that the project will eventually see the light of day. The appointment came after the MMO was \u201creset\u201d back in 2024, with Merrill stating at the time that Riot had gone back to the drawing board \u201csome time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Concern grew in 2022 when then-executive producer Greg Street <u>warned fans that there was \u201cno guarantee\u201d the League MMO would ship.<\/u> The lead then went on to announce <u>his departure from Riot in early 2023<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Two years ago, when he announced the development reset, Merrill said he understood fans&#8217; frustration at the lack of progress on the MMO, but insisted the time spent in the dark would \u201chelp provide space for the team to focus on the incredible amount of work ahead of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cRemember, &#8216;no news is good news,&#8217; as it means we&#8217;re hard at work, pouring our hearts and souls into making something that we hope you\u2019ll love,&#8221; he continued.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Image credit: Riot Games.<\/em><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/riot-co-founder-calls-league-of-legends-mmo-the-grail-quest-5-years-after-it-was-announced\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>League of Legends developer Riot Games is still bashing away on its MMO, which co-founder Mark Merrill recently described as the studio\u2019s \u201cgrail quest.\u201d Riot&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6570,7887,9760,3092,3915,19715,5847,59],"class_list":["post-82758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-announced","tag-cofounder","tag-league","tag-legends","tag-mmo","tag-riot","tag-teases","tag-years","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}