Image source live-production.tv
In a major coup against the other prospective buyer, ESPN, BAMTech, the corporation owned by both Major League Baseball (MLB) and Disney now control all streaming rights for the popular MOBA franchise League of Legends.
Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, sold the rights to stream their games for $300 million dollars, so it’s clear Disney sees there’s money to be made. This is the same company that acquired Marvel for $4 billion, and bought the very company that now makes them partners with MLB (BAMTech, originally created by MLB), for a $1 billion dollar minority stake.
That Disney sees profitability in a portion of streaming rights for a Free-to-Play game in an amount exceeding a quarter of a billion dollars speaks volumes to prospects of the longevity of everyone’s favorite MOBA who isn’t a DOTA player, but they’re garbage people anyway. At least they say that about us.
The company plans to launch a dedicated streaming service for League of Legends via their own app, however they are also in talks to handle distribution on existing streaming portals like Twitch and YouTube Gaming (much to the relief of League of Legends fans who fear the ability to watch their favorite players—and games they’re gambling on—might go behind some new walled garden.
At a certain point after Netflix, Twitch, YouTube, Amazon, Showtime, HBO—one can only have so many different ways to stream content before they realize they’re beginning to resemble the passengers on the spaceship from Wall-E.
Association with the Disney Franchise has long ceased to be with child-oriented animation now that they’re the company of both Darth Vader (oddly enough, they bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion as well—same as Marvel), and Deadpool. But as reddit.com-user xlnqeniuz hoped, commenting on news of the Disney-related purchase:
“The next champion better be a Disney princess, otherwise I’ll be left disappointed.”
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that too—at the very least they could give us an Annie skin where she’s Belle and Tibbers is Beast. Or as /user/Oxaciana replied
“Obi-Wan coming to the rift.”
I’d wish for that, but they already have a Jedi-ripoff Yi skin.
Seeing as Disney merely purchased a portion of the streaming rights, and Riot didn’t actually purchase the rights to Disney imagery, this is probably somewhat of a pipe dream.
With the Major League Baseball connection, though, perhaps Little Slugger Trundle is one step closer to the major leagues. If by nothing else than association.
So will this new partnership have any effect on league of legends gameplay or cosmetics, or merely exist to be a way to funnel streaming revenue from this free-to-play game into the vast Disney coffers? Will more dedicated funding behind locking down streaming rights provide a user-friendlier portal? Or a walled garden that kills off parts of a fan base due to inaccessibility?
