Riot Games is doing well with both of its biggest games, namely Valorant and League of Legends. The latter seems to have a huge fanbase that creating a game based on the same universe was considered and even pursued. However, the studio decided to dump the project.
Riot Games' Pool Party
Codenamed Pool Party, the game is meant to be a melee-style game that is set in the universe of League of Legends, meaning that we will be seeing some familiar characters from the MOBA game in the same environment.
It would serve as a competitor to games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, but the rate of success of another competitor, particularly MultiVersus, might've spooked the company and decided to shut it down instead.
After all, why invest and pour resources into something that might have a similar trajectory to a game that was not as well received? It wasn't just the fear of the game flopping. Reports say that there were already issues during the game's development.
For one, Pool Party's concept was changed many times as it was being created. It went from being a hardcore game to becoming more casual. More elements were added later on and as more changes came, employees working on the project were said to have grown frustrated.
About 80 employees were working on the game. Half were lucky enough to be offered different positions within the company, and others were looking at other jobs internally, as reported by Game Spot. 10 of the staff, however, were either laid off or left Riot.
This can serve as both good news and bad news. It's bad because it would've been interesting to see League of Legends champions battle it out melee-style, but good because it means that Riot can focus on its existing games and potentially other projects.
Valorant on Console
One of Riot Games' biggest announcements lately is its first-person shooter game Valorant finally coming to consoles. A lot of people have been requesting a console port, and it has finally arrived four years after it was released on PC in 2020.
The company announced the availability of the limited beta on June 14th, which applies to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Registration is already open, although it is only limited to countries like the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, and the whole of Europe.
It has been almost a month since the release of the limited beta, but Riot said that it will be "possibly rolling out to remaining global regions shortly thereafter," as reported by The Verge, so it might not be long before other countries get access to the beta as well.
For obvious reasons, there will be no crossplay between console and PC Valorant players. Keyboard and mouse users might simply have the advantage especially when it comes to aiming and flicks.
A mobile version was already announced back in 2021 as well, but seeing as Riot Games is prioritizing the release for the console port, it might be a while before the mobile version will be released.
