Microsoft and Riot Games announce Game Pass deal

At last night’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 event the gaming giant surprised audiences that had tuned in by announcing a content deal with Riot Games, the company behind the popular League of Legends franchise. Active Game Pass subscribers will receive the following rewards across the Riot Games’ slate of software, which can be found on PC and mobile devices depending on the title.

• League of Legends – All Champions unlocked (PC)
• League of Legends Wild Rift – All Champions unlocked (Mobile)
• Valorant – All Agents unlocked (PC)
• Legends of Runeterra – Foundations Set unlocked (PC + Mobile)
• Teamfight Tactics – Select Little Legends unlocked (PC + Mobile)

The deal shows further commitment from Microsoft into using the PC and mobile gaming spaces to expand the reach of their Xbox division, while significantly lowering the cost barrier to entry on playing something like League of Legends competitively. It is also likely to get Riot Games’ fans to check out what Game Pass has to offer them, potentially increasing long-term subscriber numbers for smaller parts of the Xbox ecosystem like Xbox Cloud Gaming and PC Game Pass. 

In the Xbox Wire post that accompanied the announcement, Marc Merrill, Co-founder and President of Games, Riot Games said “We’ve always respected Xbox’s relentless push to drive gaming forward, and we’re proud to add our games to the Xbox catalog through Game Pass. We’re also thrilled to welcome Xbox players into Riot’s ecosystem of diverse and passionate gamers across the world. In the coming months, we’ll share more about the partnership and how members can access the Game Pass content.”

It certainly sounds like this is the first step towards even more regular collaboration between the two companies. Riot Games currently has several new games in development under their Riot Forge sub-brand that could be a good fit to be future Game Pass releases and fill gaps in the services’ schedule, so we look forward to hearing what’s next.