by Season 2 of the Netflix anime series “Arcane,” based on the popular game ” League of Legends,” will soon be released worldwide. Riot Games, the publisher of the game, has invested nearly $100 million in production costs, and the total investment for the two seasons, including advertising costs, is expected to reach $250 million. According to a report by Variety magazine, the most significant investment in the history of streaming anime, the company has a grand ambition to bet on the next step for the game company. Riot Games, which has grown into one of the world’s largest game companies, has 180 million monthly players for “League of Legends” and generates annual revenues of $3 billion.
Although the game is free, most of the company’s income comes from items called “skins” sold within the game. The company has also had success in the e-sports and music fields and has decided to enter the video content business as its next source of revenue.
The project began with two employees of the Player Support team, Christian Linke and Alex Yi. In 2016, Riot permitted them to produce, and they started working on a pilot with Fortiche, an emerging animation studio in Paris. Until then, Fortiche had only worked on music and short promotional videos for the company. Season 1 was produced as a 9-episode epic, each 40 minutes long, with production costs exceeding $80 million (approximately 12 billion yen) and advertising costs of $60 million (approximately 9 billion yen).
The company, which already had a huge player base, launched a large-scale promotional campaign, including a promotion at the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai. This campaign also manifested then-CEO Nicolo Laurent’s vision to be a “21st-century entertainment company.” That ambition was embodied in a full-scale entry into Hollywood.
A live-action film was planned with the Russo brothers from the Marvel movie ” Avengers ” series. Still, due to differences in the direction of the script, the contract was terminated after paying a penalty of $5 million (approximately 750 million yen). Although executives from major media companies such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney were invited, no film productions other than “Arcane” were realized. In May 2023, the ambitious plan reached a significant turning point with the retirement of CEO Laurent. Under new CEO Dylan Jadeja, the entertainment division was essentially dismantled, and the return to the game business became clear. While it is unclear whether the massive investment in Season 1 will be recouped, Riot focuses on quality. Co-founder Mark Merrill is confident that “it was an investment necessary to create a work worthy of players’ time.” Season 2 of “Arcane,” the most expensive production in history, will be released worldwide on Netflix on November 9th.
Season 2 of the Netflix anime series “Arcane,” based on the popular game ” League of Legends,” will soon be released worldwide. Riot Games, the publisher of the game, has invested nearly $100 million in production costs, and the total investment for the two seasons, including advertising costs, is expected to reach $250 million.
According to a report by Variety magazine, the most significant investment in the history of streaming anime, Riot Games, has a grand ambition to bet on the next step for the game company. Riot Games, which has grown into one of the world’s largest game companies, has 180 million monthly players for “League of Legends” and generates annual revenues of $3 billion. Although the game is free, most of the company’s income comes from items called “skins” sold within the game.
The company has also had success in the e-sports and music fields and has decided to enter the video content business as its next source of revenue. The project began with two employees of the Player Support team, Christian Linke and Alex Yi. In 2016, Riot permitted them to produce, and they started working on a pilot with Fortiche, an emerging animation studio in Paris. Until then, Fortiche had only worked on music and short promotional videos for the company. Season 1 was produced as a 9-episode epic, each 40 minutes long, with production costs exceeding $80 million (approximately 12 billion yen) and advertising costs of $60 million (approximately 9 billion yen).
The company, which already had a huge player base, launched a large-scale promotional campaign, including a promotion at the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai. This campaign manifested the vision of then-CEO Nicolo Laurent to be a “21st-century entertainment company.”
That ambition was embodied in the form of a full-scale entry into Hollywood. A live-action film was planned with the Russo brothers from the Marvel movie ” Avengers ” series. Still, due to differences in the direction of the script, the contract was terminated after paying a penalty of $5 million (approximately 750 million yen).
Although executives from major media companies such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney were invited, no film productions other than “Arcane” were realized. In May 2023, the ambitious plan reached a significant turning point with the retirement of CEO Laurent. Under new CEO Dylan Jadeja, the entertainment division was essentially dismantled, and the return to the game business became clear.
While it is unclear whether the considerable investment made in Season 1 will be recouped, Riot focuses on quality. Co-founder Mark Merrill is confident that “it was an investment necessary to create a work worthy of players’ time.” Season 2 of “Arcane,” the most expensive production in history, will be released worldwide on Netflix on November 9th.
