League of Legends creator wants to break into TV market to fight negativity about video games
- Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill decided to make first TV show, called Arcane, to appeal to an audience outside the gaming community
- Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Hulu, HBO and others have already invested billions annually in original TV programming and acquisitions
He created a free-to-play video game with his college friend that has brought in billions of dollars over the past decade and which draws up to about eight million concurrent players every day. Yet, when he goes to high-profile drinks parties and business events, Marc Merrill says people often “walk away, turn their shoulder, or chuckle” when he tells them he makes video games for a living.
Such is the life of the Riot Games co-founder whose game, League of Legends, is one of the most popular titles of all time.
“It’s less about the acknowledgement or recognition from some broader culture,” Merrill says. “The thing that bothers me is the stigma or the negative judgment.”
That stigma is part of the motivation for Riot’s planned expansion beyond the gaming world. Addressing why Riot decided to make a TV show, entitled Arcane, Merrill says the company has an ability to continue to broaden the public’s understanding of what video games, and the industry built around them, represent.
The announcement of Arcane comes amid the most saturated media landscape of all time, as streamers and traditional networks duke it out for subscribers.
