Riot Games Co-Founder Was Just Joking About ‘League of Legends’ MMO

By Brian Crecente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Earlier this week Riot co-founder Marc Merrill sparked discussion around the possibility of the developer creating a “League of Legends” massively multiplayer online game when he tweeted a question about the idea.

But the tweet, which read simply “Should we build a MMO? Yay or nay?” wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.

“He was being playful around the release of this world map () – and wants to encourage our players to think of what Riot’s long-term goals could look like,” Justin Kranzl, Riot Games’ North America communications director, told Variety.

The tweeted question came after the developer released an interactive map based on the game’s growing lore.

The single tweet kicked off discussion in the official “” subreddit where players there discussed the possibilities of a “LoL” MMO and whether they thought it could be successful.

“League of Legends” is a massively popular game worldwide, with huge followings in some countries, including South Korea. The MOBA is currently the second most watched and third most streamed title on the video game streaming platform Twitch, according to TwitchStats.

While the company hasn’t created any spin-offs for the popular game, it has put a lot of work recently into breathing more life into the lore behind the game through video shorts and comics. Some of that new material has reinvented characters or given them a more robust backstory.