The expansion will involve new offices in India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Riot Games has announced an update to its business reorganization in the fast-growing Asia Pacific (APAC) region. With a massive focus on hyper-localisation, the leading gaming, entertainment, and lifestyle brand will extend its publishing reach to include Japan and India. Previously SEA was run out of its Singapore hub office and had an office in Japan. Now, Riot Games will be opening new publishing offices in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The reorganization will also see a diversification of Riot’s operating model, with Publishing being at the forefront, alongside its other business pillars of Games, Entertainment, Esports and Enterprise.
To lead publishing efforts in APAC, Riot has brought in Alex Kraynov, its previous Managing Director of Emerging Markets (Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, Brazil, Middle East, North Africa, and Japan), as the new Managing Director for APAC.
“This is a natural step in progression for our publishing business in Southeast Asia, and Riot recognizes that APAC has the potential to become the biggest region in the world for Riot. This region is intricately diverse, with massive gaming communities that have diverse needs and a strong appetite for mobile gaming.
In the past few years, our offices in Singapore and Japan have worked hard to release several new games and have nurtured new esports leagues to excite and delight players. Working towards more physical presence in our key APAC markets, we’re extremely excited to double down on these efforts to continue striving towards being the most player-focused gaming company in the world.” - Alex Kraynov, Managing Director for the Asia Pacific, Riot Games.
Intending to be the most player-focused game company in the world, Riot has in the last couple of years launched several new titles including VALORANT, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Legends of Runeterra, as well as Riot Forge titles Ruined King and Hextech Mayhem. Riot’s games within the League of Legends universe have garnered over 600 million players globally in the past decade.
Beyond the gaming space, Riot has also released Arcane, the globally acclaimed Netflix animation series, as well as expanded efforts within the Riot Games Music group with the releases of royalty-free music under Riot Sessions, and virtual metal band Pentakill’s comeback EP, Lost Chapter. Riot has also continued expanding its space within fashion, working with brands such as Uniqlo to release a collection of League of Legends UT t-shirts. More recently, Riot also collaborated with Filipino urban streetwear brand Team Manila on an exclusive capsule collection to celebrate the launch of Neon, the first Filipino agent in its tactical shooter VALORANT.
At the same time, Riot has also updated their logo that will be rolled out across Riot-branded touch points throughout 2022. The change to the logo was an output of building a more cohesive visual system including the creation of additional unique assets (like typography) that will help players recognize the brand more easily where it shows up.
Riot has significantly grown its workforce and is now doubling down on publishing in the region since re-establishing its Singapore HQ for Southeast Asia in 2018. This expansion translates into the establishment of local offices and hiring Country Managers in key markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India, joining publishing forces with Riot’s Japan office, and enhancing its publishing hub in Singapore to over 80 people across the region.
