Legends of Runeterra open beta starts on January 24: Here’s how to sign up

By Aaron Mamiit Published January 12, 2020

Riot Games will launch the open beta of Legends of Runeterra on January 24, about three months after the digital card game was announced alongside other new projects by the League of Legends developer.

The announcement, made as part of the celebration for the kickoff of League of Legends‘ 10th season, will allow anybody to sign up and play Legends of Runeterra after a couple of limited preview patches that were only offered to a few lucky followers.

Recommended Videos

Players who participated in the first two testing sessions for Legends of Runeterra will be able to gain early access to the open beta on January 23, as well as those who pre-register on the game’s official website before January 19. Open beta participants will acquire an exclusive Moonstruck Poro Guardian.

Compared with the earlier versions, the Legends of Runeterra open beta will include several significant changes, including a new ranked mode that players can climb from the lowest Iron rank to the highest Masters rank. It will also add a friends list, through which players can challenge their friends directly. Riot Games will also be adding new board and guardians, as well as issue a patch that will change more than 20 cards currently in the game.

Players who were not able to participate in the two preview patches should not worry that they will get wrecked in the open beta as other players will have accumulated better cards. Riot Games said that all accounts will be reset upon the launch of open beta. The developer added that this will be the last time that accounts will be reset, so players will be able to keep whatever they earn or buy during the open beta.

Legends of Runeterra is set to be released for the PC sometime in 2020, with a mobile version of the digital card game with cross-platform play capabilities to follow within the year.

In addition to Legends of Runeterra, Riot Games is also working on League of Legends: Wild Rift, which will bring the popular MOBA to mobile platforms, and Project A, a character-based tactical shooter. Riot Games also recently opened the Riot Forge, a publishing label that will allow other studios to expand the League of Legends universe.

Former Contributor

Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…

Topics

Gaming

Epic is throwing $50,000 for vibe-code games. What could possibly go wrong?

Epic is rewarding vibe-coded games with real money

Epic MegaJam 2026

Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.

Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”

Gaming

Monster Hunter Outlanders arrives on Android and iOS next week with four-player co-op

The free-to-play spin-off launches October 29 with open-world exploration, mobile-focused combat, and a building system.

Monster Hunter Outlanders poster

It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.

Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.

Gaming

Phantom Blade Zero makes me think Sony might have a point about going all digital

Physical games still matter, but when the disc isn't a complete copy of the game, the argument for keeping it becomes harder to make.

Phantom Blade Zero Featured Image

I'm a big supporter of physical games. There's something satisfying about owning a disc, lending it to a friend, or grabbing a bargain without waiting for a digital storefront to approve the price. But Phantom Blade Zero has me questioning one of the biggest arguments in the physical-versus-digital debate. The game's digital version launches on October 29, 2026, while its physical PS5 editions, including Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate versions, won't arrive until 2027.

And there's another wrinkle: the digital version reportedly needs up to 134GB of storage, raising questions about how much of the game can actually fit on a standard Blu-ray disc. A standard PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray disc maxes out at 100GB, so Phantom Blade Zero may need to ship across multiple discs or require players to download additional data to finish installing it. Either way, the idea of popping in a disc and having the complete game ready to play gets a little murkier.