Riot’s Strategy – League of Legends the “Game of the Year”

Riot Games is the company responsible for creating the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) – League of Legends (LoL). LoL is a session-based, multiplayer online battle-arena game where rival teams consisting of five players in each, compete against each other for victory on highly stylized battlefields and landscapes. Since its release on October 27, 2009, LoL has a record of more than 1 million members from around the world in the LoL community, earning five awards in the first annual Game Developers Choice Online on October 7, 2010. What kind of marketing strategy does Riot Games use to attract 150,000 players from North America and Europe to compete in LoL each day?

Riot Games made LoL a rated Teen, free-to-play online game, making it available to everyone who resides in North America and Europe. The LoL developers have created a cinematic trailer, promoted in large gaming events, and relying on positive word-of-mouth to gain more than 1 million members. Riot Games’ sustainable competitive advantage lies in its customer excellence. Using its advanced gaming technology and large community forums, LoL developers focused on what players wanted and whatnot. They conducted occasional polls to players for suggestions and requests on the kind of direction LoL should take; the #1 request being free-to-play. Until now, Riot Games and its developers have continued to build the game in accordance with the majority of players’ interests, and releasing new ‘champions’ roughly every two weeks. There are over 50 champions that players can choose from in-game, to strategize and battle with one another. The release of these new champions adds support to their customer excellence as it allows Riot to retain loyal gamers, as they wish to find out about the new features and abilities that the champions are capable of.