Riot Games, the company behind the popular game League of Legends, decided to create a TV show based on the game. Instead of asking Hollywood studios for help, Riot made and paid for the show themselves. They wanted to make sure they had complete control over the project.
The show, which is available on Netflix, was meant as a special treat for fans and a way to attract new players to League of Legends. The game has been around for 15 years and is still very popular, but fewer people are playing it now. Riot hoped the show would be the first of many and help the company grow into a big entertainment brand, like Disney.
Making Arcane was very expensive. Riot Games spent a lot of time and over $250 million to create two seasons of the show. They also spent tens of millions more on ads and award campaigns to promote it.
Netflix paid Riot about $3 million per episode to stream the show, and Tencent, the Chinese company that owns Riot, paid another $3 million per episode to show it in China. But this money covered less than half of what it cost to make the show.
Some people who worked on Arcane said Riot didn’t have a clear plan for how to make back all the money they spent. Even though the show didn’t make a profit, Riot said it still helped their business in other ways, like getting more people interested in their games. The company had one of its highest grossing revenue periods in the past month.
Arcane was a success when we look across all our internal measures. The second season is on track to be at least break-even for us financially.
the spokesperson said
At the start of the year, Riot Games let go of 11% of its workers because it wanted to focus more on making video games.
The company also decided to slow down its plans for Hollywood. It ended Arcane and paused work on other shows based on its games. Riot made changes to its entertainment team. Shauna Spenley, the president, and Ken Basin, who wrote a book about making TV shows and led the film and TV department, both left the company.
If they had seen an absolutely ginormous increase in revenue, in profit, they would have done more. It’s as simple as that.
said Simon Pulman, who co-chairs the media and entertainment group at the law firm Pryor Cashman LLP.
For a long time, video game companies have turned their popular games into movies, but the early attempts didn’t go well. For example, Nintendo had such a bad experience with the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie that it didn’t allow another one for 30 years.
Recently, though, game-based movies have gotten better. Last year, The Super Mario Bros. Movie made nearly $1.4 billion in theaters. Usually, game companies let Hollywood studios handle these movies to avoid losing money if they fail. Now, these companies are trying to figure out how to get moviegoers also to play their games and spend money on in-game items.
Riot Games is known for spending a lot to keep its players excited and happy. For example, its esports division didn’t make a profit even after 10 years.
To make Arcane, Riot decided to pay for it themselves to make sure it was high quality. In 2020, they hired Shauna Spenley, who used to work at Netflix, to lead the project. She brought in more people, including Brian Wright, another former Netflix employee. Riot doubled its entertainment team to over 24 people and told managers to plan to spend $250,000 per new hire.
For us, what’s most important is fostering long-term player engagement and retention. Riot’s focus has always been on creating games and experiences that players want to enjoy for years, and Arcane is part of that larger vision.
according to a Riot spokesperson.
Some people at Riot Games didn’t like the idea of making Arcane. They thought spending so much time and money on the show took focus away from League of Legends, the company’s most important game. Nicolo Laurent, Riot’s former CEO, supported the project, who wanted to make the company more valuable by expanding beyond video games.
The first season of Arcane was a big hit with critics. It won four Emmy Awards in 2022 and became one of the most-watched shows on Netflix in many countries.
Also Read: Arcane Season 2 Smashes Netflix Charts & Becomes Most Popular Show in Over 60 Countries
But, even though the show was popular, it didn’t make much money for Riot. The company spent so much on making and promoting the show that it didn’t get back what it spent. It also didn’t attract many new players to League of Legends, and the existing players didn’t spend more money on the game.
The team working on Arcane didn’t give Riot’s game designers enough time to create Arcane-themed items or characters for the game to sell. While some new players did sign up for League of Legends, most didn’t stay because the game is hard to learn and its community can be tough on beginners.
We were really surprised with the success of season one. That’s why we probably missed an opportunity to do some in-game activations around it.
Bellezza, the League of Legends executive producer, said.
After Arcane’s first season, Tencent, the company that owns Riot Games, started asking how the show was helping Riot’s main business—video games. For the second season, Riot decided to work harder to turn Arcane fans into League of Legends players. The game is free to play but makes billions of dollars each year from selling skins (costumes) and characters in the game.
This time, Riot gave its team two years—instead of just a few months—to create Arcane-themed items for players to buy. Since November, they released eight new skins based on Arcane characters, priced between $10 and $14 each.
One special skin for Jinx could cost up to $250 to get through random draws. Another character, Ambessa, costs about $9.30 and even had a music video to promote her release.
However, many Riot employees wondered if the company should have focused more on improving the game itself and designing items they knew players would love. Riot Games Chief Marc Merrill Says Arguments Over Arcane’s Huge Budget Are ‘Silly’, defending the company’s decision to invest heavily in the project.
Recently, game companies have been trying to figure out how to make TV and movie fans start playing their games. For example, Hasbro, the toy company behind Transformers, used to spend years making movies and shows about its toys. Now, it’s cutting back on spending and focusing more on smaller projects—like a Netflix series based on its Magic: The Gathering card game—to attract new fans.
Just getting an epic show isn’t enough
said Rebecca Shepard, vice-president of the Magic franchise.
Hasbro is considering digital play experiences and merchandise for existing players as well as people who might be intimidated by the card game.
Source: Yahoo