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Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, Valorant, and other popular titles, recently announced it would invest in its development studio in China to expand its Research and Development (R&D) section. As such, the company is planning to develop game titles that could last decades into the future.
Riot expanding its list of titles is not uncommon, but considering it is in China, there is a growing feeling that the company might be looking to try its hand at gacha games. The Chinese market is heavily dominated by popular titles that fall into the gacha game category, such as Genshin Impact and Tower of Fantasy.
Therefore, it would not be surprising if Riot Games decides to jump into this territory and expand its wings for the purpose of reaching out to more players and enhancing its scope. This expansion would make a lot of sense as it would help bolster the company's income severalfold.
That aside, the gacha game titles mentioned earlier are also extremely popular worldwide, with Genshin Impact being a phenomenon. Hence, Riot Games will have a lot of scope to go global with those titles as well, should they feel the need.
Riot Games might be looking to develop titles that can directly compete against the likes of Genshin Impact
Riot Games began its Chinese expansion last year itself. Since then, several people have been involved in the development of the company's current titles, namely Valorant, League of Legends, and Teamfight Tactics.
However, the fact that it is expanding its Research and Development section in China has raised quite a lot of eyebrows. This is because the president of Riot Games clearly mentioned in the presentation that the company will be building new games.
He also stated that new titles will be developed by keeping long-term service in mind. This could either mean MMORPGs like Final Fantasy and Black Desert Online, or gacha games like Genshin Impact and Tower of Fantasy.
As it happens, Riot Games is already developing a MMORPG that is being handled by none other than erstwhile World of Warcraft Lead Systems Designer Greg Street. So, gacha games make up the only remaining option when it comes to new game titles that can span decades.
A new esports title will also not make any sense considering both League of Legends and Valorant are quite well established, and the company wouldn't want to start a competition at an internal level. However, this is not the only reason to believe the company might be diving into gacha games.
The Chinese market is primarily home to all forms of gacha games, and the two major names in this genre are Genshin Impact and Tower of Fantasy.
Obviously, HoYoverse's worldwide phenomenon Genshin Impact is arguably the most popular gacha game out there, with no major competitors. So if a popular company like Riot Games decides to dive into gacha games, it stands to become a competitor to that title.
There is also the possibility of a battle royale game not much unlike PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, popularly known as PUBG. Riot Games president Marc Merill mentioned the development of multiple titles, which clearly keeps the doors wide open for a gacha game.
