League Of Legends May Finally Make The Jump To Mobile

Despite the ups and downs the MOBA genre has experienced in recent years, League of Legends is still going relatively strong. These days, however, it isn't merely competing with other PC-based games like DotA 2, but also mobile MOBAs that are particularly popular in Asia. Perhaps, then, it's not a surprise to hear a new report that claims Riot is working on a mobile version of League of Legends with parent company Tencent.

Though there's been talk of a mobile version of League of Legends for years now, nothing has ever materialized. Today's report, however, claims that work on the mobile version has been underway for more than a year at this point, so it looks the two companies are getting serious about bringing League of Legends to smartphones.

The report comes from Reuters, which spoke to three anonymous sources with knowledge of Riot and Tencent's plans. Those sources say that Tencent initially approached Riot about a mobile version of League of Legends years ago, but when Riot said it didn't want to take the game mobile, Tencent released a game called Honour of Kings in China instead.

Fast forward to today and Honour of Kings has found massive success while players are spending less on the desktop version of League of Legends. Releasing a mobile version of League of Legends might help turn that around, especially in eastern regions where gamers spend a lot of time playing on phones and handheld systems.

Reuters' report is painfully slim on details about the game itself, but its sources do say that the mobile version isn't likely to launch within 2019. Beyond that, it's difficult to know how successful a mobile version of League of Legends could be, especially after competitors have had plenty of time to get their own mobile MOBAs off the ground. We'll keep an ear to the ground for more, because the prospect of a mobile League of Legends is certainly an intriguing one.