Veteran World of Warcraft Producer Moves to Riot Games for Mystery MMO
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Former World of Warcraft producer Raymond Bartos has joined Riot Games to work on their highly anticipated, unannounced MMO, adding to a growing roster of veteran Blizzard developers building the Runeterra-set project.
The development team behind Riot Games' unannounced massively multiplayer online game has added another heavyweight from Blizzard. Raymond Bartos, who previously served as a producer on World of Warcraft, announced his move to Riot on LinkedIn. During his time at Blizzard, Bartos helped ship major community touchstones like the Plunderstorm mode, limited-time remix events, and the game's twentieth-anniversary celebration. In his announcement, Bartos pointed to Riot's core values and culture as the primary driver behind his decision to make the jump.
Bartos is far from the first veteran developer to trade Azeroth for Runeterra. He joins Orlando Salvatore, another former World of Warcraft developer who moved to Riot late last year, alongside other high-profile industry veterans who have migrated over the past few years. While Riot's upcoming MMO has kept an exceptionally low profile since undergoing a creative reset, this steady influx of senior talent confirms that serious construction on the project is moving forward behind closed doors.
For players tracking the long-term horizon of online gaming, watching how Riot builds this team offers a fascinating look at the high-stakes chess match of modern live-service development. Riot still has not shared a release window or official gameplay reveal for the project, preferring to let the talent assembly speak for itself. As more legacy talent trades sides, expectations continue to climb for what Riot plans to do with the Runeterra universe when it finally steps onto the MMO stage. Original reporting by Connor Makar over at Eurogamer details the full scope of the team's growing legacy roster.
Tags: Riot Games, World of Warcraft, MMO, PC Gaming, Industry News
Original article: Eurogamer