Like many other Riot titles, the League of Legends-themed fighting game Project L will be completely free to play at launch.
Riot Games developer Tom Cannon has released a new update on the development of Project L. The team-based fighter has been absent from the spotlight since 2021 but a new video showed off new features. Most importantly, it confirmed rumors that Project L will be free-to-play.
This announcement comes just days before an expected larger reveal at Evo 2022. The world’s biggest fighting game tournament usually features new game and DLC announcements from fighting game developers, making it a prime venue to reveal Project L. The video showed off polished movesets and improved graphics for Darius, Ahri, Jinx, and Ekko. Cannon also discussed the addition of Illaoi, though no footage of her was shown.
Most importantly, Project L developer Tom Cannon confirmed the rumor that the game will be free to play.
As for monetization, the LoL fighting game does not have any confirmed in-game currency mechanics. League of Legends brings in cash from a wide variety of skins for each champion and other cosmetics. Valorant has a battle pass system alongside skin sales. In both cases, characters can be unlocked and played for free but it’s much quicker and more efficient to pay cash to get them.
Cannon specified that the Project L team will “promise to be respectful of both your time and your wallet.” What that actually means is yet to be seen.
Free-to-play is a controversial topic in the fighting game community, and there are potential downsides to the freemium system. Common arguments against it include genre customization restrictions and the incentive to make newer characters overpowered. Intentionally or unintentionally, Riot Games has been guilty of the latter at times, but fans will have to wait and see how it works.
With Project L confirmed free to play, more gamers than ever have a chance to jump into a AAA fighting game.
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