League of Legends Getting a Mobile Version Via Tencent

In case you weren’t already aware, Tencent is a giant -- and I mean GIANT -- Chinese investment company who has their fingers in a lot of game developer pies: they have shares in Ubisoft, Epic Games, PUBG developer Bluehole, and even the developers of the most popular MOBA in history (and certified sexual-harassing jerks) Riot Games. As for the extent of their relationship, well, that was mostly only known to the higher-ups in both companies, although Tencent certainly plays a role in the game’s publishing and censorship in China.

But apparently, that role has been expanding, because it was just announced that over the past year, unknown to us, Tencent was working on a mobile version of League of Legends.

This news comes to us from three insiders who spoke to Reuters, although details of this new game or the workings behind it are still somewhat shrouded in mystery. But here’s what we know right now: years and years ago, Tencent offered to make Riot Games a mobile version of League of Legends, which they shot down. But their attitudes towards this project have softened in recent years, largely because the company is now struggling to make ends meet with just League of Legends, which is logical enough, as other giant games like Fortnite and DOTA 2 have been quietly chewing up the LoL fanbase for years.

So the mobile game, it seems, is just an attempt to monetize the game further. Given that’s the case, we shouldn’t expect it to be restrained on that front. Still, it's unlikely to actually impact you directly: it’s looking to be mostly for Asian markets, where mobile games are generally more popular than sit-down PC games like League of Legends.

As for the game itself: we don’t really know. It’s not going to be a 1-to-1 translation, and will likely be similar to Honor of Kings, another Tencent mobile MOBA that’s currently crushing it overseas -- which was ironically made when Riot Games said “no thanks” to the first offer for a mobile game.

This is big news, even if it’s not big for you, specifically, so regardless I’ll keep an eye out.