Riot Games taking a vacation after LoL 10.16, Killjoy launch

Steven Rondina Published 05/08/2020

The staff of Riot Games has been working hard in 2020 and they’re taking a bit of a summer vacation.

The publisher behind League of Legends and Valorant announced the news themselves and detailed how exactly this will work for players of both games. Unsurprisingly, this will result in updates to both games being paused, but fans need not worry about either of the two popular games going offline during this stretch.

“This has been a big year for Riot for a lot of reasons…As game developers, we’re all hyper aware of the effects of crunch and project-based deadlines. We owe it to ourselves and to you to prioritize our health as a team so we can bring you new experiences long into the future,” Riot said in a statement on its website.

As a result of this vacation, planned updates to Riot’s games are being moved. The actual time off will be staggered to avoid any prolonged outages in any of the games. Riot didn’t go into specifics on how this would impact each individual game, but noted that more details will be coming in the near future.

The announcement comes alongside a number of significant updates for all of Riot’s currently shipped games. League of Legends patch 10.16 dropped around the same time as the update, with both coming out next to the release of new Valorant agent Killjoy. Legends of Runeterra also launched patch 1.7.

Here’s why Riot is going on vacation:

2020 has been big for Riot with Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, and TFT

Riot Games has already had an enormous 2020 thus far. Despite dealing the same challenges currently faced by other companies, the publisher has successfully shipped two new major titles in Valorant and Legends of Runeterra. It also launched the mobile version of popular auto-battler Teamfight Tactics.

There’s still a lot more set to come out in the future for the company. A mobile and console spin-off of League of Legends titled Wild Rift is set for release later this year. Alongside this is an unnamed League of Legends fighting game. Finally, Riot is working with outside studios on two other games that fall under the “A League of Legends Story” label: Conv/rgence and Ruined King.

But it hasn’t been all successes for Riot in 2020. The publisher is coming off a public relations disaster after its announcement that it had inked a partnership with the government of Saudi Arabia, which has a consistently poor human rights record. An executive for the company also resigned earlier this year after a social media post that criticized George Floyd, whose death while in police custody sparked global protests against racism.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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