According to Varietythe developer of League of Legendsfounded in 2006 and based in Los Angeles, is struggling to carve out a bigger share of the pie in the entertainment sector, in particular because of the heavy investments devoted to the release ofArcane. For the release of the first season in November 2021, Riot would have spent 60 million dollars (approximately 55.7 million euros) solely on promotion and marketing. A substantial sum, well above what is usually done for a series not distributed by its studio and to be put down to a lack of experience on the part of the company in this sector.
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Behind the apparent mastery, other details are intriguing. Initially, five seasons were planned: there will ultimately only be two, Netflix announced. The cost of producing the forty-minute episodes is surely the cause, as unanimous as the success of the adventures of Vi and Jinx is. According to Variety, the budget allocated to the nine episodes of season 1 exceeded 80 million dollars (approximately 74.4 million euros), and amounts to more than 100 million dollars (approximately 93 million euros ) for season 2.
One would have thought that Netflix, well-versed in the exercise, would do most of the promotion ofArcanebut it was also Riot which took care of it by organizing significant promotional events, such as the takeover of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The marketing budget for season 2 would have been reduced, but the amount would still be considerable compared to other animated productions.
Ambition and restructuring
In 2020, while season 1 was under development (Fortiche had been working on it since 2016), Riot Games launched another project around the universe League of Legends. This time in feature film form, it was to be directed by the Russo brothers, known for their work on the Avengers films. Due to a lack of agreement on the script, the project was abandoned and the video game studio paid the filmmakers $5 million (€4.6 million) to terminate their contract. Enough to further penalize the studio’s expansion and slow down its ambitions.
The former CEO of Riot Games, Nicolo Laurent, said for example that he wanted to build “the entertainment business of the 21st century”. We are still far from it despite the nice coup ofArcane. The colossal investment in the animated series has so far not necessarily borne fruit, surely delaying the launch of other projects. In an email addressed to the editorial staff of Variety, Riot co-founder Marc Merrill, however, maintains that their Hollywood ambitions are intact.
“Our ambitions in entertainment have not changed. We never intended to operate like a traditional studio with traditional deadlines. What changed was our perception of ourselves: we understood that reaching our level of requirements was taking longer than expected, and we adjusted our development objectives and our teams accordingly.” Merrill did not confirm the amount of astronomical sums injected into the series, but did specify that Riot was “completely comfortable with the investment required to deliver a series worthy of our players’ time”.
Other projects such as mini-series or an animated film are well under development, but none have yet reached the production stage. More concrete, however: two waves of layoffs hit more than 560 Riot Games employees in 2024. “As part of these changes, we have had to make the difficult decision to eliminate certain positions. This is not about downsizing to save money, but about ensuring that League will remain an excellent experience for the next fifteen years and beyond”Merrill wrote in October on X.
The second season ofArcane will be released in three parts throughout the month of November. The first act will be available on November 9, the second on November 16, and the third on November 23.
