The co-founder of Riot Games has responded to a report that claimed League of Legends animated series Arcane was a “financial miss.”
Bloomberg reported that Arcane’s two seasons cost an eye-watering $250 million to produce and market, and ultimately failed to generate enough gaming revenue for Riot despite winning a big audience on Netflix. The publication said Netflix paid $3 million per episode, with Riot owner Tencent handing over an additional $3 million per episode to show Arcane in China. All told, that’s less than half the $250 million it cost Riot to bring Arcane to market. And, according to Bloomberg, Tencent started asking Riot difficult questions between the release of Season 1 and 2.
The hope, Bloomberg reported, was that Arcane would fuel an increase in players of League of Legends and in turn a boost in spending. Riot makes significant revenue from the sale of skins for League of Legends characters, some of which cost hundreds of dollars. Bloomberg said that Riot failed to capitalize on the success of Season 1 with Arcane-themed items, but had more time to do so ahead of the release of Season 2.
In a quote attributed to a spokesman, Riot insisted that while Arcane wasn’t profitable, the show should be considered a success overall, with the last month one of the company’s highest grossing revenue periods ever. Apparently the second season is on track to at least break even financially.
Now, Riot co-founder Mark Merrill has responded to the report, taking to Reddit to address discussion about it within the League of Legends community.
“People who look at the world through a short term, transactional, cynical lens, really struggle to understand Riot,” Merrill said. “This has been true with various people trying to claim that high quality free games won’t work, that esports will never work, that our music was insane, are now saying that Arcane wasn’t awesome and worth it.
“These people think we make things like Arcane to sell skins, when in reality we sell skins to make things like Arcane. Riot is a mission driven company where Rioters are constantly striving to make it better to be a player. That is why we have successfully done that over and over again across multiple games and now multiple businesses / mediums – games, sports, music & animation. Do we get everything right? Nope. But we are not focused on the short term extraction of profits – we are focused on delivering exceptional value to our audience over the long term, again and again and again.
“To be clear, Arcane crushed for players and so it crushed for us.”
Merrill, clearly, is insisting that for Riot the costly Arcane was worth it, although it’s worth noting that he does not dispute any specific part of Bloomberg’s reporting. Merrill subsequently responded to one Reddit user who suggested Arcane wasn’t profitable enough for Riot to make more League of Legends animated spin-offs, saying: “Except it was.”
Fans are hoping that Riot pushes forward with more League of Legends animated series despite all this. Last month, Riot creative director and Arcane creator and showrunner Christian Linke revealed the three Runeterra regions it’s exploring as settings for future shows: Noxus, Ionia, and Demacia.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
