Over a decade after it originally launched on PC, Riot's League of Legends is finally making its way to mobile and console gamers.
The new streamlined version of the popular MOBA, called League of Legends: Wild Rift, will come to Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS in 2020.
More than just a down-rezzed version of the game or port, Riot say Wild Rift has been built from the ground up to make the most of the various hardware limitations and challenges presented by smartphones, tablets and consoles. It'll feature a twin-stock control scheme plus gameplay changes like the ability to buy items remotely.
However, at least right out of the gate, Wild Rift won't feature all 145 champions currently playable in the PC version of League of Legends. Riot haven't revealed a specific reason for this or the specific number of champions the mobile game will boast at launch but, if nothing else, a reduced pool of available characters in the game should make the meta a little bit more accessible to newcomers.
It's not yet clear how closely the Wild Rift versions of each champion will mirror their PC counterparts. It's possible that some characters might be balanced differently or even feature abilities that their main game versions lack due to the control scheme for Wild Rift.
At the time of writing, around 36 champions have been confirmed for the game.
Riot's official line is that "League of Legends: Wild Rift will launch with around 40 champions. More will follow over time."
Update - The Wild Rift developer diary released in June 2020 confirmed the following champions would be playable when the game enters alpha:
- Blitzcrank
- Jhin
- Camille
- Janna
- Braum
- Olaf
- Gragas
- Malphite
- Aurelion Sol
- Tyrndamere
- Xin Zhao
- Zed
- Yasuo
- Ziggs
- Graves
Here's a list of each playable champion confirmed for League of Legends: Wild Rift so far:
- Shyvana
- Master Yi
- Alistar
- Ahri
- Jinx
- Soraka
- Vayne
- Jax
- Ziggs
- Garen
- Vi
- Ezrael
- Fiora
- Fizz
- Annie
- Nasus
- Lux
- Miss Fortune
- Orianna
- Ashe
- Twisted Fate
- Nami
Riot are taking pre-registration signups for League of Legends: Wild Rift on the Google Play Storefront ahead of a 2020 launch.
When will League of Legends Wild Rift launch?
Riot have yet to announce a formal release date for League of Legends: Wild Rift.
Will League of Legends: Wild Rift feature cross play?
At this stage, Riot have ruled out crossplay between Wild Rift players and PC gamers keen to stick with the regular League of Legends client. For all intents and purposes, the two are separate titles. Allowing for crossplay between them is a cool idea but, given the gameplay changes being made in Wild Rift, would present considerable challenges around balance and fairness.
As for whether console and mobile players will be grouped together, it's not yet clear. Despite the developers original promise of additional news about the console versions of League of Legends: Wild Rift in 2020, any info about how these versions fit into the broader picture remains absent.
Will League of Legends: Wild Rift come to next-generation consoles like the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5?
Back in 2019, when Wild Rift was first announced, neither Microsoft nor Sony had begun to formally unveil their next generation games console plans. Since no major updates about the console versions of Wild Rift have been released by Riot since then, it is not yet known whether the developer are looking to launch the game on both current and next-generation hardware platforms.