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Whatever their problems, their results are pretty damn consistent. League of Legends remains the premier e-sport, dethroning all competitors in viewership rate

by esyir 5y ago

Whatever their problems, their results are pretty damn consistent. League of Legends remains the premier e-sport, dethroning all competitors in viewership rates and numbers. Valorant is rapidly rising, and threatens the long-incumbent direct rival Counter-Strike Teamfight Tactics, while not an e-sport, still remains in the top 10 streamed games on twitch. 3 releases, all (at least by twitch streams) major successes. From the product point of view, they're clearly doing something right, and whatever work culture issues they're claimed to have, they're certainly outperforming. Note: As most of riot's releases target the e-sport crowd, I'm using twitch viewership numbers as an analogue for success. Sports, after all, are judged by popularity amongst viewers above all.

dafelst 5y ago
Success isn't everything. It is very possible (and arguably more likely) to be a successful company and still have a shitty culture and/or work environment. Riot is a prime example of this, but unfortunately they are hardly the exception - it is a fairly common pattern amongst the AAA game companies and publishers. The specifics are not the same from company to company, but arguably the end result is. People are unfortunately willing to endure a lot just to get into their "dream industry".
zapnuk 5y ago
That's debatable League of Legends is a premier e-sport more so because of marketing than game design or engineering. In fact, their game client remains worse than dota 2's in every way. It's actually pretty hard to take them seriously considering their client is still such a buggy mess after about 10 years. While the viewership of casual Valorant is greater than CS-GO, it's also not "rapidly rising" - https://sullygnome.com/game/Valorant/365/summary https://sullygnome.com/game/Valorant/365/summary And the esport viewership of CS-GO is much larger compared to Valorant. And while Teamfight Tactics was an success, Legends of Runeterra wasn't. So they are 3/4... which is still pretty good - but can also be explained by good marketing and IP handling. Similar to the new Activision-Blizzard.
- tester34 5y ago
  >League of Legends is a premier e-sport more so because of marketing than game design or engineering. Indeed, it's debatable because it sounds weird I don't play LoL for close to decade due to their marketing (is it even marketing? or actually their Esport stuff?) For me LoL is great game because it changes often, so you don't get bored fast, also it's highly competitive with decent ways to express your skill

by esyir 5y ago

dafelst 5y ago

Success isn't everything. It is very possible (and arguably more likely) to be a successful company and still have a shitty culture and/or work environment. Riot is a prime example of this, but unfortunately they are hardly the exception - it is a fairly common pattern amongst the AAA game companies and publishers. The specifics are not the same from company to company, but arguably the end result is. People are unfortunately willing to endure a lot just to get into their "dream industry".

zapnuk 5y ago

That's debatable League of Legends is a premier e-sport more so because of marketing than game design or engineering. In fact, their game client remains worse than dota 2's in every way. It's actually pretty hard to take them seriously considering their client is still such a buggy mess after about 10 years. While the viewership of casual Valorant is greater than CS-GO, it's also not "rapidly rising" - https://sullygnome.com/game/Valorant/365/summary https://sullygnome.com/game/Valorant/365/summary And the esport viewership of CS-GO is much larger compared to Valorant. And while Teamfight Tactics was an success, Legends of Runeterra wasn't. So they are 3/4... which is still pretty good - but can also be explained by good marketing and IP handling. Similar to the new Activision-Blizzard.

tester34 5y ago
>League of Legends is a premier e-sport more so because of marketing than game design or engineering. Indeed, it's debatable because it sounds weird I don't play LoL for close to decade due to their marketing (is it even marketing? or actually their Esport stuff?) For me LoL is great game because it changes often, so you don't get bored fast, also it's highly competitive with decent ways to express your skill