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Riot Games Levels Up Asia Pacific Operations With Refreshed Leadership

For many companies, Asia can be seen as a challenge to tackle. Considering that the region is home to a wide range of languages, demographics, and most importantly, income levels, the task is definitely challenging. But to Riot Games that doesn’t seem to be an issue of concern.

In a recent announcement, the company, which is owned by Tencent, is making big strides to sink deeper roots into the Asia Pacific region.

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If you’ve been in the gaming space in the past two years, Riot Games has expanded its library of games at an incredible rate. Plus, they have the marketing muscle to back it up as well.

Having Valorant (First Person Shooter), Wild Rift (Mobile MOBA), Legends of Runeterra (Card Game), the company is no longer a one-trick pony with League of Legends. In addition, they’ve also released additional titles in the form of Ruined King (RPG) and Hextech Mayhem (Rythmn Runner) to varying levels of success.

For all their effort, one cannot fault them for trying. On the partnerships front, Riot Games has been active as well, working with the likes of Secretlab, Netflix, and Logitech to expand their footprint past gaming.

Looking ahead, Riot Game is seeking to expand and establish local offices in markets such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. This expansion would be in addition to existing offices in Japan and Singapore. With the massive expansion, comes a good deal of hiring as well. So if you’re looking to join Riot Games this would be the opportune occasion to do so.

Leading these efforts, Alex Kraynov, would be the new Managing Director for APAC. Joining his leadership team would be –

  • Shinji Komiyama, Director of Country Management, APAC
  • Jennifer Poulson, Head of Publishing Partnerships, APAC
  • Alasdair Gray, Head of Marketing, APAC
  • Derek Winder, Head of Business Development, APAC
  • Yasushi Fujimoto, Country Manager of Japan
  • Joel Guzman, Country Manager of the Philippines
  • Resha Pradipta, Country Manager of Indonesia/Malaysia

Interestingly, the original game that started it all is still locked up. League of Legends and its auto chess spinoff, Teamfight Tactics, remain with the original publishing partner in South East Asia with Garena. Incidentally, Tencent happens to own shares in Sea, the parent company of Garena. Most recently, Tencent had sold $3 billion worth of shares in Sea reducing its stake in the company from 21% to 18%.

“League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics has been a key title since Riot launch a few years ago. Overall, we are happy with how Garena is driving the product overall and we will continue the partnership,” articulated Kraynov without skipping a beat.

Over on the community front, the chatter is largely mixed with this piece of news. The community tends to have a love/hate relationship with Garena and at times does skew negatively from time to time.

As far as the company’s trajectory is heading, we’ll be keen to see how far Riot Games will grow in the wake of major acquisitions in the video game industry.