There have been no official Riot MMO leaks. This is mainly because the game has only began development phase. If you’re desperate to see any kind of leaks, keep reading we’ll show you a few possibilities. Although, be warned, the content is highly speculative. Again, we’re so early that we don’t have many dots to connect.
Table of Contents
No Leaks Because We’ve Just Begun
The Riot MMO has only began its development phase. The developmental stage of a game will affect how likely a leak is to occur. For instance, when a development team is small, there are less people to share confidential information. Whether it be accidental or intentional.
We’ve done some basic analysis of the Riot MMO developmental timeline.
| Developmental Period | Effect on Potential Leaks |
|---|---|
| Planning: October 2020 | The planning phase has an incredibly low chance of leaks. During this phase, there are likely only a handful of producers and executives on staff. They’ve all signed non-disclosure agreements. Furthermore, they are monitored and scrutinized by executive. Lastly, the directors are likely discussing tentative, high level topics. Much of those discussions are in flux and might be somewhat uninteresting to the casual fan phase. |
| Pre Production: June 2021 | During the pre production phase, engineers, lead technical artists and other roles set up the foundation for the upcoming staff. The engineers may create the software or develop the AI of NPCs. Also, the technical artists will develop the art side of the game engine. Once again, the chance for leaks are low. If there were a leak, it would likely be rather uninteresting. Probably not something visual either. Maybe a comment, or a direction at best. |
| Development: May 2022 | The development stage has an increased chance of leaks occurring. Again, rather unlikely. Imaginably, management could infer which staff member made the leak based on the leak itself. Remember, the team is still small. Probably anywhere from 20 to 50 staff members. If there were a leak, it might be something visual, like pre-alpha footage or a screenshot of early artwork. |
| Post Production: 2025-2026 | We’re skipping some stages of development such as alpha, beta, and pre-launch. Post production is the most likely time for Riot MMO leaks to happen. The team has hundreds or nearly thousands of staff. The network of communications and information is expansive. Some staff members may unintentionally leak upcoming gameplay footage without consequence. The demand for leaks are higher too since the game is already playable. |
Giants of Valoran Leak
On Tuesday April 4th, several Reddit posts, and YouTube videos were being shared about a LoL MMO leak. It turns out, the video was simply fan art created by Environment Artist, Marc Carrier.
Marc tried to explain by responding on a YouTube video,
This is my artwork and I don’t for Riot. Not yet anyway. 🙂
Marc Carrier – YouTube Comment
Riot MMO UX Concept | Hint or Leak
Riot’s former Senior UX Design Manager for the upcoming MMO made an interesting tweet. On April 6th, 2022 in an attempt to create dialogue with the MMO fans he asked for video game ideas with unique UX (user experience).
Ed Altorfer’s Tweet
“For example, in BoTW you can walk up to items at shops to buy them instead of navigating a list in a menu”
This can be seen as a indication the UX team is looking to limit menu’s as a philosophy. Perhaps they want to eliminate as many dialogue boxes as possible. With that, we can imagine purchasing, supplies, such as food, and drink without a menu.
Imagine purchasing supplies to be akin to walking into a dedicated room. A grocery store. In theory, you would walk up so a basket of apples to buy them instead of left-clicking the salesperson and sifting through items.
MMO Leaked Character Selection Screen
A Riot MMO character selection screen was posted a month or two after the official Riot MMO announcement. It has been since taken down. On Twitter, Scarra responded, “Already…you’re so quick”.
We believe this image is fan made more several reasons.
- This Riot MMO character selection screen came out only months after announcement. As you read above, when the Riot MMO was announced, Riot was likely in the planning stage. During the planning stage, the game engine and art is not built yet. To have a working character selection screen would not be plausible during the planning phase.
- The character in the middle is arguably Darius. Now Greg street stated they want to do the champions justice. Champions will likely be raid bosses. It’s possible champions could be quest givers and story-related NPCs. At this stage of speculation, playable champions is off the table.
- Lastly, the combat classes shown below are directly from League of Legends. While it is quite possible the Riot MMO could use these naming conventions, it’s a little too specific and does not add credibility.
Our verdict on this image is, fan made. Understand, it simply surfaced on Twitter too soon after we had wind of Riot being in the planning stage of development.
Riot’s Unreal Engine 5 Trailer
On January 10th, 2023, Riot Games presented their 2023 League of Legends Cinematic Trailer. Titled Brink of Infinity, it scanned through a rendering of Summoner’s Rift (League of Legends map name) in Unreal Engine 5. Some fans are speculating this is how the Riot MMO might look, graphically.
To add to this theory, there have been Riot MMO job postings asking for experience in Unreal Engine 5 and Unity. They say Unreal Engine 5 would be for the game and Unity for a companion app. If the Riot MMO is developed in Unreal Engine 5, could this be a sample of what the Riot MMO would look like?
We do not think this is a Riot MMO leak. Neither do we think it’s a representation of the upcoming game. Riot Games, produces video games with stylized art. This video appears as photorealistic art. Secondly, the team who developed this cinematic are surely not sharing information directly with Riot’s R&D project MMO.
The League of Legends cinematics garner incredibly publicity. They get millions of views on YouTube. Even if the Riot MMO planned on using these exact textures, it would be incredibly unwise for the team to showcase it.
Our last reason why we think the 2023 League of Legends Cinematic is not an MMO leak is because of the developmental stage the Riot MMO is in. The riot MMO is in pre-production at the time of this release. As of January 10th, 2023, the Riot MMO team are probably still building their game engine. We can tell from the public job listings. Therefore, how could they be this far along?
No Riot MMO Leaks – Come Back Soon
As of today, I do not think there are any Riot MMO leaks. It is not that we are unlucky. It is simply too early. Riot Games Inc, is a professional game studio. They are unlikely to accidently leak information. The legal ramifications of the employees and damage to the project are considerable.
Now, if there are any leaks that reach the public domain, you will see them here first!