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Riot Forge is ending after the release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story

By Matthew Liebl

Brand Licensing Europe
Brand Licensing Europe / John Keeble/GettyImages
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This week, Riot Games announced plans to reorganize the company to ensure financial flexibility and sustainability moving forward. In total, about 530 roles globally — about 11% of Riot's current workforce — are being eliminated.

Although their core games like League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift will remain largely untouched — and become prioritized to focus on even more content and features — other areas of the company are going to be affected. The team behind Legends of Runeterra, Riot's collectible card strategy game, will suffer some layoffs and change direction with a focus on The Path of Champions.

Riot Forge, the publishing division of Riot Games focused on bringing new games from the League of Legends universe, will be shut down entirely.

"We’re ending new game development under Riot Forge after the upcoming release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story," Riot stated. " Forge was an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favorite indie devs and let them loose on Runeterra with their unique viewpoints, styles", and expertise."

Riot Forge was first introduced in 2019. The publishing label was focused on bringing new League of Legends stories to life with the help of smaller game development studios. These games would further explore the backstories of some of League of Legends' most beloved characters.

To date, five games have been released under the Riot Forge banner:

  • CONV/RGENCE (a Metroidvania from Double Stallion released in 2023)
  • Hextech Mayhem (a rhythm platformer developed by Choice Provisions released in 2021)
  • The Mageseeker (an action role-playing game developed by Digital Sun released in 2023)
  • Ruined King (a turn-based RPG developed by Airship Syndicate released in 2023)
  • Song of Nunu (an adventure platformer developed by Tequila Works released in 2023)

A sixth game, Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is set to arrive this year. It's a crafting RPG set in the magical world of Bandle City, home of the Yordles. You play as a shy Yordle whose life is thrown into chaos when the portals connecting Bandle City collapse. Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story will be released on Nintendo Switch and PC.

And with the release of Bandle Tale this year, it will presumably mark the end of the Riot Forge experiment. While we've definitely gotten some cool games and interesting stories, Riot is looking to refocus its efforts on some of the other more ambitious projects currently underway.

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