In an interview with Polygon, League of Legends dev Eduardo Cortejoso stated that the Arena game mode was created to rebuild player trust following a tough patch for League of Legends, and that more limited-time game modes will be released in the future.
Arena game mode was a short yet enjoyable alternate game mode that added some much-needed shift to the enormously successful title.
It’s subsequently been revealed that the devs saw League as going through a “rough patch,” and that they believed the Arena mode would be a wonderful way to “rebuild player trust” while they worked to get the game back on track.
The Arena mode was designed to rebuild player trust by League devs
League of Legends dev Eduardo Cortejoso spoke with Polygon about Riot’s decision-making with the game mode and why the devs opted to explore limited-time modes.
“With Arena, especially how League was going through a rough patch at the earlier part of the year, we really wanted to use this as an opportunity where our goal was to rebuild player trust.”
Riot, they claim, abandoned prior measurements for how popular a mode was and how much money it earned them in favour of producing an entertaining game mode.
While the game mode is a completely different experience, the team appears to have prioritised addressing the fan base that was looking for more casual and randomness choices.
“This is why you’re seeing something like Arena where we are explicitly targeting something that has a shorter time frame and is much more randomized through the augment system.”
That element of unpredictability kept the mode exciting yet casual, to the point that many players miss it and dubbed it “one of the best things to happen to League of Legends.”
With Nexus Blitz coming in October and Arena being tweaked before its December release, it’s unclear what League’s developers have in store for 2024.