Riot Video games have confirmed that they’re giving League of Legends a large overhaul, placing most of LoL’s growth staff on the venture with the purpose of releasing League Subsequent in 2027.
It’s no secret that League of Legends is, in some methods, extremely outdated. The shopper is gradual, clumsy, and liable to crashing. Graphically, LoL is missing compared to different stay service titles, and there’s solely a lot that may be completed to create new and attractive cosmetics.
Moreover, matches are lengthy in a world with shortening consideration spans. League of Legends stays the most important esport on this planet when it comes to viewership, but it surely received’t maintain that crown at no cost.
So, Riot’s taking some initiative and making an attempt to drum up hype behind League of Legends to get a brand new technology of gamers in.
What’s Altering in League of Legends 2?
The way in which League of Legends 2 was introduced is unorthodox to say the least. Bloomberg launched a report detailing the in-development pseudo-sequel, and Riot had a video ready that went stay about quarter-hour later, formally acknowledging its existence.
So, for the sake of readability, let’s go over what we all know for a truth is going on with LoL.
First, they’re lastly placing the sport and the shopper on the identical engine, making them totally built-in with one another. This can permit them to flesh out the shopper and easy over plenty of the nasty bugs which have plagued LoL for over a decade at this level, and it’ll make the method of implementing adjustments just like the latest WASD management replace a lot simpler.
Moreover, they’re fully altering Summoner’s Rift and including some new gameplay parts to the principle aggressive mode. They’re additionally making some large changes to the out-of-game techniques like runes.
Maybe most essential for sport well being is their purpose to provide the brand new participant expertise some main upgrades, aiming to make the method of moving into League of Legends for the primary time simpler for the common participant.
Riot can be adamant that this replace isn’t a sequel, but it surely’s League of Legends 2 in an analogous vein to what Valve did with Counter-Strike 2 and what Blizzard did with Overwatch 2, so it’d be no shock to see the LoL 2 identify stick.
That moniker is a little more informative than “League Subsequent,” the inner codename that was leaked within the Bloomberg report that broke the information.
A whole lot of what they needed to say mirror’s Riot’s announcement, however there are two key elements of the report that add some extra context on what this might imply for LoL going ahead.
First up is why Riot’s doing it: Cash.
“Whereas League of Legends has fared higher than some opponents within the slow-growing video-game enterprise, its participant base has dropped off, in response to the individuals Bloomberg Information spoke with. Valorant, one other Riot title, makes more cash,” their report claims.
This could possibly be as a result of a number of elements. When a weapon pores and skin will get launched in Valorant, you’ll be able to run it on any character you need. Contemplating LoL has 172 champions, there’s a very good probability a pores and skin for an unpopular champion performs poorly, not due to the standard of the pores and skin, however as a result of 5% of your gamers are enthusiastic about it in comparison with 100% for a Knife pores and skin in Valorant.
So, whether or not or not Riot can clear up LoL’s monetary woes could also be a deeper problem than simply updating the sport and bringing extra gamers again in.
Second, the inner construction of Riot’s dev staff has been totally reorganized. This was hinted at within the official video, however there will probably be considerably fewer individuals engaged on the core sport of League of Legends in 2026. There’s a very good probability that large content material updates will decelerate.
Regardless, Riot is clearly dedicated to holding League of Legends alive for years to return.
