League of Legends Company Acquires Rising Thunder Dev

Rising Thunder developer Radiant Entertainment has been acquired by Riot Games, the company behind successful MOBA League of Legends, and will begin development on a new game.

"We are delighted to announce that Radiant Entertainment has been acquired by Riot Games," reads a message on the independent studio's website. "At Riot, our developers will continue their mission of building incredible games that speak to us personally as players. You’re probably wondering what this means for our games."

As part of the announcement, Radiant said the alpha test phase of Rising Thunder, which is a free-to-play title only available on PC, will end on on March 18. Its development team will also "start work on a new game." Its statement did not clarify whether development on Rising Thunder will continue or if the project has been suspended.

"As for Rising Thunder, the team will start work on a new game that we’re incredibly excited about," the studio said. "We wish we could say more now, but rest assured you’ll hear more when the time is right. For now, we will be closing the Rising Thunder Alpha on March 18th. Thanks to everyone who participated in the test!"

GameSpot has contacted Radiant for clarification on the ongoing status of Rising Thunder.

Radiant has also promised to continue development on Stonehearth, an exploration and survival game available now on Steam Early Access.

"First and foremost, Stonehearth will go on, full speed ahead. We’ll continue delivering Alphas at our current pace, with the aim of delivering the final game 'when it’s ready.' We'll continue keeping you up to date on our progress through things like our Twitch streams and Desktop Tuesday blog posts."

It continued: "And more broadly, to everyone who has helped support us by playing Stonehearth and Rising Thunder, backing our Kickstarter, telling your friends, and giving us your feedback: Thank you for helping us make these games as good as they can be. You have been a consistent source of motivation and inspiration for us, and we look forward to continuing to talk and work with you in the future."

Rising Thunder was designed to take the core mechanics of a fighting game and layer the gameplay design elements inspired by MOBAs such as League of Legends and Dota. It also simplified combos and special move inputs, to place a heavier focus on strategy over execution. Among the design team was ex-Capcom developer Seth Killian, who worked on Street Fighter IV and co-founded the EVO Fighting Game tournament. Radiant Entertainment was established by Tony and Tom Canon, the other two founders of EVO.

Riot Games was acquired by Chinese company Tencent in December 2015. Its main office is located in Los Angeles, California, but it also has studios in Burlin, Dublin, Shangai, and Tokyo, among other places. Its parent company, Tencent, also owns a 40 percent stake in Epic Games, the studio behind Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and Fortnite.