Riot Games may dominate the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) market in the PC universe with League of Legends, but today, it has yet to enter the mobile MOBA market.
A market that is very small but has big possibilities.
Though League of Legends may not be ready for gaming on the go, Riot Games is ramping up its mobile development teams as shown by job openings posted online.
This week, the company even acquired the domain name RiotGames.mobi (Whois). Dotmobi is the top-level domain introduced for the mobile web. Of course, while obtaining the name may be nothing more than a move by the company to protect its intellectual property, there are plenty of signs that Riot is focusing efforts in the mobile arena.
In late August, Riot posted a job for a Mobile Product Manager in Santa Monica. The listing says the company is building a dynamic, fast-moving Riot Mobile team to help the company develop and create mobile solutions.
The website RiotGames.mobi is currently a parked web page at the time of this story.
It’s unknown whether Riot had to fork out cash to get the name or if it simply had its legal department contact the previous owner. The domain was acquired through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. According to Whois history, the name was originally registered anonymously in 2010 and changed ownership to Riot Games this week.
There are developers in the mobile MOBA market.
This October, Gameloft will be releasing the mobile game Heroes of Order & Chaos.
As Pocket Gamer points out in a recent story, Gameloft will be copying the League of Legends tactic of making six characters free for a week at a time, with the option to buy them outright with real money should they take your fancy.
There hasn’t been much news out of Riot regarding its mobile game plans, but with all the mobile job openings being posted, it may not be too long before more is known.
And in case you’re wondering, Riot Games does own the domain leagueoflegends.mobi. The company has owned the web address name since 2008. Today, the web address redirects users to LeagueofLegends.com.
Talking about this story: Kotaku
(Image of Riot Games Dublin offices via RiotGames.com)