Riot Games is known for League of Legends and has the digital collectable card game Legends of Runeterra coming out later this year. Although they’re based in West Los Angeles and employ 2,500 people, they’re actually owned by the incredibly powerful Chinese company Tencent.
Now they’re doing board games. Again.
In a news release on their site, Riot begins by reminding us that they made the tabletop game Mechs vs Minions three years ago. Then they get to the point; they’re geeks and want to make more.
The next board game Riot will make is Tellstones: King’s Gambit. It’s a bluffing game for 2 to 4 players, and it’s connected to Runeterra.
Riot’s tabletop philosophy
We’re told there are four points that each Riot game, board game or not, will touch on; design, accessibility, components, and innovate where needed.
Riot points out that their first tabletop was a large minis game whereas the second is a competitive, smaller and swifter game. They’re miles apart, and that’s what Riots to keep on doing; different things, so that we can all find something to play with friends at the table.
Riot’s move back to the tabletop comes in the same week as Games Workshop reported record profits. Investors calculated that tabletop miniature gaming could be worth more than $12 bn by 2023. Those investors also wondered whether there was anyone big and smart enough to take Games Workshop on.
I’m sure Riot’s geeks wanted to make games. I imagine, though, with Games Workshop wowing investors that Riot’s bean-counters weren’t hard to persuade that tabletop miniature gaming was worth looking at again.
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