Riot Games Announces Forge, a Third-Party Arm Focused on Narrative Games

Months ago, Riot Games promised something special for League of Legends fans would come out of this year's Comic Con Experience (CCXP) in Brazil. Revealed on stage at the convention, Riot Forge is a new publishing arm that will focus on story-driven games set in League of Legends' Runeterra universe—and the first game published by Forge will be revealed at the Game Awards next week.

On the newly launched website for Riot Forge, the Frequently Asked Questions section states that Forge's focus "is to work with experienced studios outside of Riot Games to create bespoke 'completable' League of Legends games." If "completable" seems vague, Riot communications lead Bret Forbus is more direct in his wording on Twitter: Forge will "bring single-player/story-focused games" developed by third-party studios to market.

Riot's vice president of IP and entertainment Greg Street took to Twitter shortly after the reveal at CCXP to celebrate the unveiling. "Riot Forge is something I am proud to have helped create," writes Street. "We are now an indie game publisher! The story-based games you want in the League universe are coming!"

The reveal of Forge's game and its developers is being reserved for the Game Awards on December 12. Host and producer Geoff Keighley, who recently teased that the awards show will reveal "around 10 new games/projects," has confirmed that the first title from Riot Forge will debut at the show. One new game down (sort of), nine to go?

It's a busy time at Riot. Last month, at an event celebrating the tenth anniversary of League of Legends, Riot confirmed multiple new in-studio projects and announced that League of Legends would come to console and mobile in 2020. Things are also changing with regards to Riot's company culture—earlier this week, Riot agreed to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit for $10 million in the wake of a bombshell report from Kotaku last year and ensuing employee action.