Riot Raked in $1.6 Billion in 2015

SBFord · January 2016

Riot Raked in $1.6 Billion in 2015

According to The Daily Dot, Riot Games raked in $1.6 billion dollars last year alone thanks to League of Legends. The dollar figure came via a SuperData Research report that combines digital sales data from publisher, developers and payment providers and pairs it with "qualitative consumer insight".

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BillMurphy · January 2016

And they'd better be taking some of that and turning it into an MMO, or I'll march out there and kill Teemo myself.

Catibrie · January 2016

BillMurphy said:

And they'd better be taking some of that and turning it into an MMO, or I'll march out there and kill Teemo myself.

Blizzard keeps trying to cut into their business so that would be fair play lol

Phry · January 2016

Wonder if they really did pull in that kind of revenue? a lot of what Superdata does is extremely speculative. If Riot were to confirm those figures it would be enlightening, i have a feeling though, that for reasons of taxation, they probably won't.

BillMurphy · January 2016

They keep hiring Narrative folks, and that usually means they're working on a story driven game, which LoL is not. So I wonder if they're making an RPG or MMO of some sort. Time will tell.

shawnpat · January 2016

that would be nice Bill, I know i'd play it

Strands · January 2016

BillMurphy said:

They keep hiring Narrative folks, and that usually means they're working on a story driven game, which LoL is not. So I wonder if they're making an RPG or MMO of some sort. Time will tell.

World of LOLCraft? Id play that in a heartbeat.

Phry · January 2016

I think they would be more likely to launch some kind of spin off RPG than an MMO, costs less to develop and with box sales can be far more lucrative, and they already have an 'interested' audience, who are probably likely to buy into it, they could even make some kind of 'episodic' type of SPRPG, it seems to be the trend lately, all the profits of an MMO without the netcode

laserit · January 2016

Phry said:

I think they would be more likely to launch some kind of spin off RPG than an MMO, costs less to develop and with box sales can be far more lucrative, and they already have an 'interested' audience, who are probably likely to buy into it, they could even make some kind of 'episodic' type of SPRPG, it seems to be the trend lately, all the profits of an MMO without the netcode

I'll put my money on an MMO.

When you're raking in that kind of dough, spending lots of that coin on development of a new product can be very advantageous when it comes to dealing with the tax man.

You can waste tons of it to making an MMO and still come out ahead.

SEANMCAD · January 2016

and to quote myself:

McDonalds does not sell the best Steak Dinners

BillMurphy · January 2016

laserit said:

Phry said:

I think they would be more likely to launch some kind of spin off RPG than an MMO, costs less to develop and with box sales can be far more lucrative, and they already have an 'interested' audience, who are probably likely to buy into it, they could even make some kind of 'episodic' type of SPRPG, it seems to be the trend lately, all the profits of an MMO without the netcode

I'll put my money on an MMO.

When you're raking in that kind of dough, spending lots of that coin on development of a new product can be very advantageous when it comes to dealing with the tax man.

You can waste tons of it to making an MMO and still come out ahead.

Not to mention, TenCent/Riot know the value MMOs can bring. The initial expenditure can be big (especially if done wrong), but the longterm profit and earnings for a decade or more are very attractive. It could be that Riot is very well aiming to take on WoW while its ailing.

Sovrath · January 2016

SEANMCAD said:

and to quote myself:

McDonalds does not sell the best Steak Dinners

But they do sell what people consider "great fast food". Especially when looking at other fast food restaurants.

SEANMCAD · January 2016

This place:

Image: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/29/article-2166611-13DAD952000005DC-225_634x389.jpg

makes more money than this place:

laserit · January 2016

BillMurphy said:

laserit said:

Phry said:

I think they would be more likely to launch some kind of spin off RPG than an MMO, costs less to develop and with box sales can be far more lucrative, and they already have an 'interested' audience, who are probably likely to buy into it, they could even make some kind of 'episodic' type of SPRPG, it seems to be the trend lately, all the profits of an MMO without the netcode

I'll put my money on an MMO.

When you're raking in that kind of dough, spending lots of that coin on development of a new product can be very advantageous when it comes to dealing with the tax man.

You can waste tons of it to making an MMO and still come out ahead.

Not to mention, TenCent/Riot know the value MMOs can bring. The initial expenditure can be big (especially if done wrong), but the longterm profit and earnings for a decade or more are very attractive. It could be that Riot is very well aiming to take on WoW while its ailing.

I can't think of a company who would be in a better position to do so.

scorpex-x · January 2016

BillMurphy said:

And they'd better be taking some of that and turning it into an MMO, or I'll march out there and kill Teemo myself.

Lets put it this way. If Blizzard gave you an advertising budget of 2 million dollars you would all be driving around in Ferrari instead of doing a major overhaul of the site.

Unless spending more money = more profits why would you do it. These games and this website exist to make money. The game is already a massive success and loved, spending more money obviously is not required.

I see this mindset everywhere and it's never the case, players on XIV & WoW say it's ok these games have a cash shop in a p2p game because they will spend more money on the game. Even though they have cut the budget, slowed updates and cut the staff that work on it since the cash shops have been added.

Medo961 · January 2016

Damn

Medo961 · January 2016

1.6b LOL

laserit · January 2016

scorpex-x said:

BillMurphy said:

And they'd better be taking some of that and turning it into an MMO, or I'll march out there and kill Teemo myself.

Lets put it this way. If Blizzard gave you an advertising budget of 2 million dollars you would all be driving around in Ferrari instead of doing a major overhaul of the site.

Unless spending more money = more profits why would you do it. These games and this website exist to make money. The game is already a massive success and loved, spending more money obviously is not required.

I see this mindset everywhere and it's never the case, players on XIV & WoW say it's ok these games have a cash shop in a p2p game because they will spend more money on the game. Even though they have cut the budget, slowed updates and cut the staff that work on it since the cash shops have been added.

If you profit a large amount, you have to spend it. You have to reinvest it. If you don't spend it the Government will spend it for you.

Every cent my company profits over 283k gets taxed at 52%. When I have a good year I have to reinvest it or lose it. I also can defer and if I have a not so good year in the near future I can save taxes that way.

Gets way complicated and I pay my CGA around 60k a year to save me big bucks.

Bottom line is if you just put it in the bank, you'll get raped.

scorpex-x · January 2016

BillMurphy said:

laserit said:

Phry said:

I think they would be more likely to launch some kind of spin off RPG than an MMO, costs less to develop and with box sales can be far more lucrative, and they already have an 'interested' audience, who are probably likely to buy into it, they could even make some kind of 'episodic' type of SPRPG, it seems to be the trend lately, all the profits of an MMO without the netcode

I'll put my money on an MMO.

When you're raking in that kind of dough, spending lots of that coin on development of a new product can be very advantageous when it comes to dealing with the tax man.

You can waste tons of it to making an MMO and still come out ahead.

Not to mention, TenCent/Riot know the value MMOs can bring. The initial expenditure can be big (especially if done wrong), but the longterm profit and earnings for a decade or more are very attractive. It could be that Riot is very well aiming to take on WoW while its ailing.

Why would a company make a game with a large chance to fail in a market that's saturated? Why would they take on a game like WoW that has been proven to be impossible to touch by all the biggest and most talented companies in the world, even when you say wow is ailing it's still the biggest p2p mmo on the planet by a huge margin and the 3rd most profitable mmorpg in the world. Saying Riot could make a good MMORPG is like saying the people who make clash of clans can (because that game makes over a billion profits in 2015 too)

They make MOBAS, they don't care about the MMORPG market. When their title starts to not be so popular anymore they will make a new MOBA because this is what they know what to do.

If anything these companies will make more mobile games, the MMORPG market is not in a good place right now and there are almost no new mmorpg titles in production. Nor are there companies in a rush to change that.

kaiserxxx · January 2016

A rioter called Morello (who is known for always nerfing champs) has more or less confirmed that Riot is working on a new game for a while now
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/09/riot-games-might-be-developing-a-new-title.html
Might be a new MMORPG or an offline game but highly doubt its gonna be a MOBA as League is still soaring full steam ahead and not losing any momentum yet.

scorpex-x · January 2016

League of Legends: $1.6 billion dollars
Dungeon Fighter online $1.052 billion dollars
World of Warcraft (you know that "ailing" title) $814 million dollars
Lineage 1 $339 million dollars
Maplestory $253 million dollars
Clash of Clans $1.345 billion dollars
Candy Crush Saga $682 Million dolars
DOTA 2 $238 million dollars

No other MMORPG on the list

SBFord · January 2016

BillMurphy said:

Not to mention, TenCent/Riot know the value MMOs can bring. The initial expenditure can be big (especially if done wrong), but the longterm profit and earnings for a decade or more are very attractive. It could be that Riot is very well aiming to take on WoW while its ailing.

Let's not forget Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street is with Riot too. If anyone knows how to take on WoW, it's him.

xaritscin · January 2016

BillMurphy said:
And they'd better be taking some of that and turning it into an MMO, or I'll march out there and kill Teemo myself.

the lore of LoL has been expanding these recent years. mostly because they scrapped the idea of a League of Legends on the game's world, now its kinda like another dimension where the characters are ported from their world, with all the summoning and that stuff.

in other terms an MMO about Runeterra would be interesting, but it would require much more development than the current teams at Riot are capable right now.

but all the faction drama is there tbh. Demacia vs Noxus, Zaun vs Piltover, the three sisters war in Freljord, Bilgewater vs The Harrowing from the Shadow Isles. Bandle City, Ionia, the return of the Shuriman Empire, the menace from Icathia and the Voidborn. the whole of Kumungu Jungle and Mount Targon for exploration. and lets not forget the untapped potential on a possible insight into the Void itself.

it would give enough content to explore and to get into, along with different places for the player to start. the problem i see is that most of the population will think they will kind of get on the shoes of their favorite champions, which would at best be part of the narrative or related to certain events in the game. player characters would be completelly unrelated to them, outside of being on the same faction.

Phry · January 2016

I don't see them trying to break into the MMO market, they don't have an IP that would fit there for one, and its a saturated market, even if they try to break into the Asian MMO scene they will have problems, and thats likely the only one they could realistically enter.
Even LoL's playerbase is not the kind to get into an MMO, e-sports is a more likely option, and if Riot is at all worried about Overwatch, its a distinct possibility, then fleshing out more e-sports types of games would make sense, after all LoL is an old game now, challenging WoW is probably not an option, but fending off the challenge that Blizzard will pose in the near future, thats something else.

zaberfangx · January 2016

Torval said:

At this point I think Riot is in that stage where they have a lot of creative energy and talent in a way that Blizz had 10 years ago or so. I think they have the potential to make a better mmo with an IP hook that is more popular than the original Warcraft series.

Whats creative about League of Legends? Other then new type of class type coming out every now and then.

kitarad · January 2016

May be they might make a card game based on their League of Legends characters.

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