League of Legends Card Game Legends of Runeterra Will Launch in April

League of Legends card game Legends of Runeterra will receive an official launch on April 30 for PC and mobile devices.

If Legends of Runeterra sounds familiar to you, that’s because the game has been accessible since late 2019 to smaller pools of players. The game has been evolving over that time through various balance tweaks, content additions, and the usual array of changes that you’d expect to see from the most popular live service titles.

So what will change when Legends of Runeterra receives a proper release? Not much, and that kind of seems to be the point. With the exception of the game’s mobile launch and 120 new cards, you can pretty much expect this CCG to launch in its current state. As developer Riot points out, this launch has more to do with the game as it exists and is not meant to signify a major overhaul.

“Beyond mobile and new cards, ‘launch’ mostly signifies that we’re now confident LoR’s core game and progression are in good shape for a wider audience,” Riot says. “We’re ready to ramp up content, add more features, and bring in new players while maintaining regular updates every two weeks, and balance changes once per month. After launch, we’ll share further detail on our roadmap for the rest of 2020.”

What that means for players is that there will be no content wipe and that you’ll be able to keep everything currently tied to your account. You’ll have to acquire the new cards that are being released, but that’s about it.

So how is the game so far? As always, opinions seem to vary. The game drew quite a bit of attention when it became available to more players earlier this year. Some credited it for its interesting restriction mechanics based on the “region” of a card and the way it embraced some classic Magic the Gathering ideas not necessarily seen in games like Hearthstone.

The initial hype has died down a bit since then, but some of that is just to be expected when you’re talking about a game that hasn’t even been properly launched yet. We’ll see what kind of reception the title gets later this month.

In any case, this is an interesting time for Riot. The studio is looking to expand the League of Legends universe with titles such as this and an upcoming fighting game. At the same time, they’re looking to move beyond League of Legends with games like Valorant. It’ll be interesting to see whether these projects allow Riot to move past the success of one of the most important PC games ever made.