The Arena’s 2v2v2v2 game mode in League of Legends has been popular among players, providing a fun and casual alternative to Summoner’s Rift. But “sustained player engagement” is stopping Riot Games from making the Arena a permanent addition.
Despite the positive feedback that Arena has received over the years, it has only come as a recurring game mode, leaving players asking for more.
In a Reddit thread on April 8, Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, head of League studio, said Riot is looking for one key metric to make Arena a permanent addition. “For a mode to become permanent, it needs to show sustained player engagement. Arena’s first two runs had a lot of play early, then fell off a lot,” Meddler said, reflecting upon the declining trend of losing players in Arena after hype in the initial days of the game mode.
Meddler said that making Arena permanent with a “diminishing engagement profile” would inevitably lead to poor matchmaking experiences, causing longer time queues and skill discrepancies. He added that it might “push players away” and make it harder for them to retain the more significant chunk of the players.
In the long run, having a small population of players engage with Arena makes it harder to sustain and “justify” meaningful development, making things worse for developers and players.
Meddler added he sees “a lot of potential” in Arena, and ongoing updates are being made. “Our goal is to try and give it the variety and appeal that it needs to be a long-lasting mode. IF we can demonstrate that, we can then look at having it be permanent,” Meddler explained.
Arena is returning to League of for the third time on May 1, with lobbies accommodating 16 players per game and a handful of new items.
