Even then, you do not download for free as now but also have to buy League of Legends at a price not cheap at all…Valve releases LoL
Valve releases LoL
In the past decade, the biggest fluctuation of the gaming industry has been the booming Esports or E-Sports to the present time.
It has changed the perception of many people about playing games, instead of plugging into a console game, people tend to find games that connect with many people and fight with each other.
And the two biggest names in Esports during the past decade are none other than Valve and Riot Games with two names competing fiercely in every aspect: DOTA2 and League of Legends. We would have thought, “Oh, they are competing with each other like that, there’s no way that one side would accept to sell the rival games on their platform.” That must be the obvious story and everyone believes it to be true.
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However, life does not know anything and even this, League of Legends was once released on Steam’s Valve, even before DOTA2 was released by Valve. Back in 2010, when Riot Games was still a small company with completely unknown developers, they were testing a game called League of Legends.
The problem for Riot then was how to gamers can access their games here? Gamers are accustomed to sitting at a computer, selling disc at traditional game stores is not effective, Riot Games itself has not thought of a way for gamers to download and install games online.
The solution then was Riot Games looking for the biggest online gaming system at the time – Valve’s Steam and League of Legends was first released on the Steam store in early 2010.
A few months later when Riot’s game was Games developed rapidly in North America, as the company itself decided to let gamers download the game for free, they could publish the game on their own without having to rely on Valve and Steam.
A gamer who bought League of Legends through Steam in 2010 shared: “In early 2010, after the game came out beta, at beginning of the Season 1, League of Legends was on Steam store for 20€ and you would get the Collectors Pack (20 champions, runes and the Goth Annie Skin) that is on League store + some RP”
It should be remembered that in 2010, DOTA2 did not even think about it being released, people still play Custom map DotA Allstars day after day.
It was not until 2011 that The International 2011 event took place and DOTA2 officially appeared, firing the first shot for the competition between Riot Games and Valve. And everything continues until the present time when LoL and DOTA2 are the biggest Esports games in the world…
The funny thing is that even though it has long been an independent release, you can still play League of Legends via Steam right now.
Even if you search for “League of Legends” game name on Steamcharts, League of Legends will still appear like any game sold on Steam. It is worth mentioning that the number of players playing League through Steam only counted on the fingers.
Information From: Steam Charts