League of Legends, Valorant, and Riot's other games have all come to the Epic Store
A deal between Epic and Riot marks the first time Riot's games have been available outside its own launcher.
Riot Games is branching out. Alongside the launch of its new Netflix series Arcane, Riot has partnered up with Epic to add a Jinx skin to Fortnite and bring its whole PC library to the Epic Games Store.
Since its earliest release in 2009, League of Legends has only been available through Riot's own launcher. Mobile aside, Riot's kept the rest of its games exclusive to the same launcher, too: it's the only way to play Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra. But no longer.
"Riot Games is one of the world’s best developers and creators of groundbreaking entertainment franchises. We’re excited they’ve chosen to partner with us to bring their titles to millions of new players through the Epic Games Store," said Steve Allison, vice president of the Epic Games Store.
That's all Riot and Epic had to say ahead of time, but expect to hear more from both given this is a first for Riot. It's a shame Epic doesn't have public player numbers like Steam—that could've made for some very interesting comparisons.
Riot's games are live on the Epic Games Store now: League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, and Valorant.
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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.
When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).