Riot Games Invests Heavily in Arcane Animator

Arcane, the Netflix animated series based on League of Legends, has been a hit with fans of the free-to-play MOBA since it was released last November. According to a new blog post, Riot Games has obtained part ownership in Fortiche, the French animation studio behind the TV series. While it’s unclear how much stake Riot has in the studio, this means more collaborative projects are likely to show up sometime in the future.

“Under the terms of the investment, which closed earlier this year, Riot now holds a significant non-controlling stake in Fortiche. Brian Wright (Chief Content Officer at Riot) and Brendan Mulligan (Director of Corporate Development at Riot) have also joined Fortiche’s board of directors,” the press release reads.

“Fortiche has been an integral partner for a long time, but this agreement ensures we’ll be working closely for decades to come,” said Nicolo Laurent, CEO of Riot. “We hold a high bar for everyone we work with and insist they understand players deeply and focus on them relentlessly, and from day one, Fortiche has exemplified Player Experience First. In working with Fortiche, we collaborate to push the boundaries of what’s possible and raise expectations for how games can be represented in media. As proud as we are of Arcane, we know the best is yet to come.” 

Upon Arcane‘s release in November 2021, the show was Netflix’s most-watched show globally for three weeks. It went on to win all nine of its Annie Award nominations.

“Arcane premiered at #1 globally on Netflix in November, 2021 and held the top spot for three weeks in a row hitting the top 10 in over 52 countries and maintaining a rare 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The series recently won nine Annie Awards making it the most-nominated and awarded TV show of the year with wins including Best TV/Media General Audience, Best Character Design, and Best Writing.”

League of Legends is free-to-play on PC. Arcane premiered on Netflix in November 2021. A second season is currently in production for a post-2022 release.

Source