Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill has spoken out against reports Arcane lost them millions of dollars, claiming the Netflix series actually “crushed” from their perspective.
Although the second season of Arcane, one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year, was a critical hit once again, reports have claimed it wasn’t quite as successful on the financial end.
Variety first reported the show’s full 18-episode outing cost Riot Games roughly $250 to produce, as they self-financed its development. While this endeavor certainly won them favor in the eyes of many fans, and nabbed them a few awards as well, this report claims it hasn’t turned a profit.
Given there’s no Season 3 on the way, some were quick to run wild with the report, suggesting its financial losses are the reason no further episodes are on the way. While we’ve already debunked that argument, given Riot has an MCU-style plan in the works with multiple other animated projects coming soon, the studio’s co-founder took to Reddit to further dispel the speculation.
Riot Games co-founder claims Arcane “crushed”
At the time of Bloomberg’s reporting, claiming the show was a financial ‘miss’, a Riot spokesperson claimed the second season is “on track to at least break even for us financially.” Now, Riot co-founder Marc Merrill has echoed that sentiment.
“People who look at the world through a short-term, transactional, cynical lens, really struggle to understand Riot,” he began in a thread addressing Arcane’s budget.
“This has been true with various people trying to claim that high-quality free games won’t work, that esports will never work, that our music was insane, are now saying that Arcane wasn’t awesome and worth it.
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“These people think we make things like Arcane to sell skins, when in reality we sell skins to make things like Arcane. Riot is a mission-driven company where Rioters are constantly striving to make it better to be a player.”
While admitting that the studio isn’t always perfect, Merrill assured their end goal isn’t always to drive a profit. In some situations, like with Arcane Season 2, the goal is more to do with keeping players engaged with Riot IP.
“We are not focused on the short-term extraction of profits,” he added. “We are focused on delivering exceptional value to our audience over the long term, again and again and again.
To be clear, Arcane crushed for players and so it crushed for us.”
In a further comment replying to a player directly, he reassured Arcane “was” indeed ‘profitable enough’ for Riot. Exactly what that means in terms of dollars and cents is unclear for now, but despite the naysayers online, it’s clear Riot is pleased with the animated endeavor and has no signs of stopping anytime soon.
