Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

League of Legends fighting game will be free-to-play

DeAngelo Epps
By

Riot Games and Radiant Entertainment released a video about Project L, the League of Legends fighting game they are hard at work on, ahead of the global fighting game tournament, Evo. The most significant thing announced during this August 2021 update is that Project L is a free-to-play game.

/dev: The Latest on Project L | dev diary - Project L

Project L is a 2-vs-2 assist-based fighting game in the same vein as titles like the Marvel vs Capcom series. The game stars characters made popular in the League of Legends franchise, with its latest addition being the juggernaut champion, Illaoi. A developer blog specifically focused on Illaoi’s creation also came out today.

Recommended Videos

Like League of Legends, Project L is going to be free-to-play, so it’s likely to feature in-game purchases for things like characters and skins. You can see this same business model successfully achieved in the recently released Warner Bros. platform fighter Multiversus. Project L developmental lead Tom Cannon also says Project L’s monetization will be “respectful of both your time and your wallet.”

Related

Cannon also states that the development of Project L is going well. The team is confirmed to be currently finishing up its work on the core mechanics of the game, with a lot of the development team moving on to building playable champions. The game also is going to apparently have tons of side features other fighting games have lacked, as the update also confirms things like competitive play and social systems are on the way.

While there is no confirmed release date or even window for Project L, Cannon confirmed that we’ll hear about the game at least one more time before the end of 2022.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
DeAngelo Epps
DeAngelo Epps
De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…
Three League of Legends indie game spinoffs will release in 2023
Key art highlighting Riot Forge's three League of Legends spinoffs in 2023.

Riot Forge, Riot Games' indie publisher focused on making League of Legends spinoffs with smaller teams, unveiled its 2023 lineup today. We learned about The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, an action RPG from the developers of indie gem Moonlighter, for the first time, and Riot Games revealed more specific release windows for Convergence: A League of Legends Story and Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story.
The first of these games to release will be Digital Sun's The Mageseeker, which comes out this spring. The game focuses on League of Legends champion Sylas, revolutionary fighting back against the kingdom of Demacia for taking advantage of mages. We only see a little bit of gameplay in Riot Forge's 2023 lineup trailer, but it definitely looks somewhat similar to Moonlighter with its isometric action centered around Sylas' change and magical abilities.
Riot Forge Games 2023 | The Year Ahead Trailer
The next Riot Forge game to come out will be Double Stallion Games' Convergence sometime this summer. The game is a 2D platformer with time-based platforming and combat that follows Ekko, a character you'll recognize if you watched Arcane. Finally, Song of Nunu will launch this fall. It's a third-person adventure game from Tequila Works, a developer that's mastered that formula with titles like Rime and Gylt. It follows a young boy named Nunu and his yeti Willump as they search for Nunu's mother, so this game is bound to pack an emotional punch. 
While only two games have come from Riot Forge so far, its catalog of games finally seems to be ramping up this year. The Mageseeker, Convergence, and Song of Nunu will all be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch over the course of 2023. 

Read more
Legends of Runeterra 2023 road map outlined by Riot Games
Jinx fires her special weapon in Legends of Runeterra key art.

Riot Games has laid out its plans to revitalize its collectible League of Legends card game, Legends of Runeterra, in 2023. The backbone of the road map is a recurring three-month release cycle that rotates through the releases of Expansions, Live Balance Patches, and Variety Sets.
Each quarter of the 2023 road map will feature an Expansion, which Riot Games says will primarily focus on new champions and game mechanics. As such, these will be the biggest updates of the year, with Riot Games teasing that brand-new and returning champions are coming alongside a reworking of PvP. The month after an Expansion drops, players can expect a big Live Balance Patch, which Riot Games describes as "dedicated spaces where we’ll be focused on addressing anything that may have room for improvement."

After releasing an Expansion and making any needed adjustments with the big Live Balance Path, Riot Games will conclude the cycle with the release of a Variety Set, which is the developers say are akin to a "quarterly booster pack or a mini-expansion" that contains new non-Champion cards, as well as even more balance updates. After that, the cycle will start anew, ensuring that Legends of Runeterra will get a notable update every month for the rest of 2023.
On top of that cycle, Riot Games also shared a higher-level road map outlining what players can expect in 2023. The developers are promising that new Legends of Runeterra champions and items, relic balance updates, a competitive PvP revamp, and new play formats are coming very soon. After that, new achievements, ways to get legacy content, and monthly Path of Champions adventures will be part of future updates. Riot Games is also working to add ways to play with international players and support player-hosted tournaments, although those updates are further out.
Regardless, it looks like 2023 is going to be a busy year for Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Games is being pretty clear about how it's rolling everything out. Legends of Runeterra is available for PC, iOS, and Android; Xbox Game Pass subscribers can get some special bonuses by syncing their accounts, too. 

Read more
Fighting games took a breather this year, but 2023 is the genre’s moment
Chun-li classic outfit in Street Fighter 6.

Depending on who you ask, we're either living in the golden age of fighting games right now or in a dry spell. From late 2020 to now, fans had no shortage of games to keep them occupied, but many of the genre's big developments have been supplemental. In recent years, we've seen a stream of final updates for Street Fighter 5, two betas for Street Fighter 6, and the release of King of Fighters XV, Guilty Gear Strive, Melty Blood Type Lumina, and more.

Street Fighter 6 - Pre-Order Trailer | PS5 Games

Read more