Riot Games, the developer and publisher of League of Legends, has made an equity investment in Fortiche Production, the studio behind Arcane, the animated series based on the wildly popular multiplayer online battle arena video game.
League of Legends is one of the most-played PC games in the world and has been heralded as a driving force behind the explosive growth of Esports. Arcane premiered on Netflix in November 2021 and immediately shot to the #1 spot where it stayed for three consecutive weeks. The anime series hit the top 10 charts in over 52 countries and achieved a very rare 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. ​​​​​​
The series recently won nine awards at the 49th annual Annie Awards including Best TV/Media General Audience, Best Character Design, and Best Writing. The nine awards made it the most nominated and awarded animated TV show of 2021. The series is set in Piltover, the utopian region of League of Legends, and follows the origins of popular League champions sisters Jinx and Vi as they try to reunite.
While the actual amount of the funding wasn't disclosed, the terms of the investment say Riot now holds a "significant non-controlling stake" in Fortiche Production. The animation studio, which is based in Paris, was founded in 2009 by Pascal Charrue, Jérôme Combe, and Arnaud Delord. Fortiche has some 350 employees and will remain operationally independent of Riot, aside from Brian Wright (Chief Content Officer at Riot) and Brendan Mulligan (Director of Corporate Development at Riot) joining Fortiche's board of directors. “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.
Riot and Fortiche have been collaborating on in-universe projects for League of Legends for nearly a decade now, so this official partnership only solidifies the working relationship these two companies have already established. In 2013, they worked together on the music video “Get Jinxed” (featuring Djerv) that introduced the character Jinx to League of Legends, joined forces on two different cinematic experiences featuring Imagine Dragons, and co-created “Rise,” the anthem for the 2018 World Championship that featured Glitch Mob, Mako, and The Word Alive.
In fact, Fortiche was part of the early creation and storyboard development of Arcane and has been viewed by Riot as a key partner during the development of the show. Both companies are not only working on the new season of Arcane but on other as yet-to-be-announced projects.
Riot has been eager to branch out over the last few years, and the investment money it brings to Fortiche could help both sides. Fortiche will receive the funding it needs to help bring those unannounced projects to market, while Riot gets even more access to a suite of different media platforms in order to help it make League of Legends an even bigger global brand.
League of Legends is currently available on PC.
Source: Riot Games