The Origins of League of Legends

The history of League of Legends is noteworthy. The meteoric rise of the game has surprised and caught the attention of millions of people in the gaming world. Riot Games, the video game developer, started their business in 2006. They were based out of California and eventually grew other small satellite locations around the world. Back then, Riot Games was a small independent game developer that was still learning the ropes of the industry. When they started working on the now infamous League of Legends video game, they had no idea that they were sitting on a gold mine.

Humble Beginnings

Riot Games opened their Los Angeles area office 13 years ago. As a small developer, they didn’t have anything under their belt when it came to successful video games. The two owners of the company had been fans of Warcraft III, a fantasy strategy game that was popular at the time. The developers wanted to create a game similar to it by using the framework of a multiplayer online battle. They soon got to work and started working on League of Legends. The creators knew they wanted to keep the fantasy theme and also wanted a free-to-play game that had no annoying advertisements or pop-ups.

Beta Testing

One of the producers of the game has said in the early days, no one on the team wanted to play League of Legends because it was so bad. They had to be forced to play the game on a daily basis so they can learn what needs to be fixed before its released. It wasn’t easy. Beta tests and various trials proved they had a lot of work to do.

The Release

It took six months of non-stop work for them to finally have something they could be proud of. The game was free-to-play and ready for release in the fall of 2009. They knew the release wasn’t going to be a final product and encouraged gamers to play the game and give advice on what needs to change. Riot Games created online forums for the various feedback they were getting. It seemed the players were excited to have a game they had never seen before, and there was huge potential there.

The reviews that were coming in were generally good. There was an overall sense, however, that there was a lot of work to be done to get League of Legends to near perfect. Riot Games read all reviews and were determined to get the game right. They knew what they were doing. By the end of 2011, Riot Games declared that the video game had garnered close to 33 million players. Not only was it a giant success in the United States, but it was also taking off internationally as well. In South Korea, League of Legends was the top title to be played in all public internet cafes.

Clearly, League of Legends paid off for Riot Games. The huge fanbase has surpassed 100 million players per month with expansion into accessories like toys, clothes, and other merchandise. It’s a gaming community that just keeps growing its population.