Riot Games expected heavy backlash from fans in the lead up to revealing the firm's upcoming mobile games.
League of Legends global communications lead Ryan Rigney stated on Twitter (below) that after the announcement of several mobile games such as Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra, employees anticipated both fear and concern.
In the Twitter thread, Rigney outlined five ways to avoid backlash with "show the love in your product" and "lean into the memes" cited as reasons why the studio's titles received a positive reception.
Diablo comparison
A comparison for where the company's concern stemmed from was Blizzard's Diablo Immortal announcement when one fan during a Q&A asked the developers whether this was an "out-of-season April Fool's joke". This was then followed by heavy criticism from further fans on social media.
5 WAYS TO ANNOUNCE RISKY/CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO GAMES
— Ryan Rigney (@RKRigney) January 4, 2020
Early last year, there was some fear/concern at Riot about our plans to announce a number of mobile games and a card game.
All the announcements ended up going really well.
ITT I'm gonna share some strategies we used. >1/22 pic.twitter.com/FrngQiBtb5
League of Legends: Wild Rift was also announced alongside other League of Legends-themed mobile titles back in October 2019. Teamfight Tactics is expected to launch in Q1 2020 on smartphone devices. Players can pre-register on Google Play now.
Riot recently rolled out a new publishing label called Riot Forge which allows developers to utilise League of Legends IP.
Head of Riot Forge Leanne Loombe will be speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020 about finding your unique identity and amplifying it. Get your tickets today!
