14 DAY TRIAL // During discussions regarding the approaching Season 4 for the online multiplayer battle arena game League of Legends, part of the fanbase has accused developer Riot of being greedy.
The allegations surfaced when League of Legend developer Riot was accused of not delivering a better game client and went wild when the company demanded that a third-party developed client be shut down.
Marc Merrill, president of Riot Games, known to the community as Tryndamere, contested the accusations of greed and delivered several arguments to back his claim, in the comments section of the Reddit thread debating the client issue.
He said that, unlike some other money-hungry companies that focus on average revenue per user metrics, Riot was trained to drive toward an engaging experience, convinced that the delivery of a good product would be met with a satisfying financial turnover.
Merrill further states that League of Legends was the first successful free online game in the western world, managing to stay afloat without selling in-game power or giving unfair advantages and that millions of their players spend nothing to enjoy their game, a fact which does not bother the team at all.
Furthermore, he added that the company spent millions on building a professional sports scene where some of the players make considerable earnings, complete with televised coverage that runs zero ads in an effort to deliver a great experience to their players, completely free.
“We do all this because Ryze and I are gamers. Always have been, always will be. We play the shit out of League of Legends. When servers go down, we flip out. When we don't deliver on something we promised, we flip out and change the world internally,” he further states regarding their internal motivation.
Finally, he compares the price to entertainment-time ratio of movies, magazines and other games, which usually come with a $60 / €44 price tag for around 10 hours of gameplay.