The League of Legends developers have spoken more about the future of Arena, potentially listing it as a permanent mode if metrics go well.
League of Legends is an incredibly old game. Being released back in 2009, the game hasn’t changed much since its original release. Take two teams of five and place them on Summoner’s Rift, watch them battle it out, and see who’s the victor. The developers, Riot Games, have played around with the formula somewhat, releasing modes like Dominion and ARAM to varied success.
However, they’ve never pushed the boundaries as much as they have with the newest game mode Arena. Arena was the fabled 2v2v2v2 mode that players have been patiently waiting for, with teams taking on each other in round-based 2v2s. Losing rounds deals damage to the team’s health pool, and reaching 0 health results in elimination.
Many players have already fallen in love with the mode, with many hoping the Arena will stay for years to come. Fortunately for those asking, the developers at Riot who worked on Arena have enlightened us with new information about if the mode is permanent or not.
LoL devs pleased with Arena’s player reception
In a recent Reddit AMA, the developers gave a bit of insight as to whether or not Arena will be sticking around in the long run.
“Going into launch, we were very confident we had something really fun that might really excite players once it went live. So far we’re very happy with how things have rolled out. The mode has only been live for about a week, so it’s too early to tell if it’s hitting our previously planned performance metrics since we want to see how things shake out over the course of the event.” the Rioter replied.
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While the mode has only been out for a week, the developers are happy with how it’s turned out so far. Obviously, things are a little too early to tell if the mode will stick around or not, but the Rioter explained that the team has changed their philosophy behind performance metrics for new modes.
“Some might be worried that this mode will go the way of other previous modes that didn’t hit some of our past performance metrics. In the past, we have been hyper-focused on trying to tie the success of the mode to raw engagement numbers (average hours played per account, retention rates, etc). This time, in addition to traditional metrics, we also want to evaluate the reception of the mode across our entire audience and use that as a good indicator for the mode.” they explain.
New technology means Riot is more prepared
Alongside this, another question answered by a Rioter implies that Arena can easily be brought back at any time, which is far different from the previous game modes.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the mode is going to be permanent or that Riot is guaranteeing they’ll turn Arena back on if they shut it off. It does mean, however, that they’re far more prepared if they need to bring Arena back.
