Yup. And it's early next year, so that might have been one more thing about those Switch hirings at Riot. It's particularly funny because right now Wild Rift and Pokémon Unite are in a similar situation, with both being mobile-first MOBAs that will be on Switch. I wonder if this might have helped kickstart the talks between Nintendo or Tencent - or if it was the other way around...
As for Riot x Valve... rivalry there may be, but no way either of them are turning down the chance to make some bank.
It might've helped, but I honestly think the primary reasons are that Nintendo have tried to sell their systems in China since 2003 and not really gotten anywhere. Consoles being banned until 2014ish there did not help, since Nintendo's attempts via iQue looked like pirate stuff. While Tencent have / had a major hole when it comes to consoles and relied too much on their grip within the country (which did backfire hard on Tencent shortly before they began talks with Nintendo).
I wouldn't be surprised if the MOBA stuff helped though, especially since that's a genre where Nintendo's been a non-factor.
I can't believe Illaoi now has a likelier shot of getting into Smash than the rest of gaming. In seriousness though, any plans made to include a League of Legends character would not have taken title this into account (although Riot might certainly enjoy actually releasing a game on the Switch first.)
In any case however, League's likely to become a more contentious topic over the coming year if Riot continues its trend of, uh, pandering more directly to Chinese audiences. A LoL pick could age really poorly if the wrong things happen.
Riot and Valve were never really competitors though. Valve just got roped in by virtue of picking up Dota.
That's a very difficult topic for any company to walk through yes (Just ask Activision-Blizzard over how they bungled the Blitzchung situation). The audience might be huge and possibly insanely lucrative, but the Chinese state / regime is going to use that as a hook to "ensure compliance" with companies. Not least since it has intentionally tried to build its entire Internet infrastructure with the motto "social harmony (just don't ask about what goes on in the background. Or what our police is doing.)" as a priority.
Not that every Chinese person agrees with the above: far from, a significant portion of the Chinese hardcore really doesn't like the state censorship over games etc. And there's a significant gray market (
Steam is a huge hole in the Chinese firewall, and most Switches there are imported). But yes, I can see it becoming contentious sadly: the Indian government's ban of TikTok and PUBG Mobile following the India-China skirmish does raise that possibility. As does any scenario where more regions beyond JP / NA / EU become important to Nintendo's prospects.
And TBF, LoL's audience is worldwide and has been around for about as long as Minecraft at this point. I don't think it has that much of a risk of aging poorly, although it's likely going to be contentious, yes.
Wait, if you were a hivemind, then-
slams desk then points dramatically
Why did you say "MY backstory", when you should've said "OUR backstory"!?!?!
It felt mandatory to bring that song
異議あり!" ("IGIARI!") / OBJECTION!