Mark Merrill briefly mentioned the mysterious MMO, and the long-forgotten project resurfaced

In 2020, Riot Games revealed on Twitter that it was developing an MMORPG set in the League of Legends universe - Runeterra. This news aroused great expectations among the player community at the time.

However, five years have passed, and Riot has not announced any substantial progress, not even a screenshot. Because of this, any statement from insiders of the company admitting that the project "still exists" will cause strong concern among the player community. Recently, Riot co-founder Mark Merrill briefly mentioned this mysterious MMO when attending the DICE Summit, which also made this long-sheltered project surface again.

Although he did not bring any substantive new news, Necrit, a well-known League of Legends content creator and background story expert, gave an in-depth interpretation of his approximately 30-minute speech, revealing Riot's current major changes in game development strategy, especially after the closure of the Riot Forge branch.

Riot Forge was originally a way for Riot to try to expand the League of Legends universe: working with independent game developers to create derivative games based on League of Legends characters and stories. In theory, this is to "give back to the League of Legends community", just like the animated series "Arcane" did.

But as Necrit pointed out, the reality is the opposite - these games lack appeal to new players who don't know the background of League of Legends and cannot become a "flow-inducing tool." Riot has actually been aware of this problem for a long time, but the huge corporate structure has slowed down its response.

Merrill admitted that Riot hired too many people, which shifted the company's focus: "We built the company into a 'Disneyland', emphasizing how beautiful it is and how suitable it is to work, but ignored the need to focus on serving players and continuously polishing the product."

At the end of the speech, Merrill emphasized that Riot's core goal now is to regain player-centric values. He said that the company will focus on creating a truly "worthwhile and meaningful" gaming experience that allows players to "run freely" in Runeland.

“We’ve invested years in expanding the world of League of Legends and giving it more dimensions. Players are eager to explore Runeterra, and we want to help them do so in a meaningful way.”

Although the development status of the MMO remains unclear, Merrill's last words left a glimmer of hope for players who have been patiently waiting: "We hope to win this opportunity and continue to serve the League of Legends community for a long time."