League of Legends: Wild Rift, the mobile version of the game, will be playable in the US tomorrow when its open beta goes live on March 29.
Riot Games is slowly launching a beta for the mobile version of its global blockbuster hit, League of Legends. While this version of the game – called League of Legends: Wild Rift – has some slight changes to work on smartphone touchscreens, it still keeps the core MOBA gameplay intact and playable on the go. That’s the intention, though not all players have gotten to try the game out yet: after a closed beta launched in Southeast Asian countries in September, an open beta followed that’s been slowly rolling out to other regions around the world. But don’t worry, US fans: the open beta goes live on March 29. And now we know something else: Wild Rift is coming to consoles, too – though that’s far off in the future. We still don’t have a Wild Rift release date for the full game on mobile. When the Wild Rift beta reaches more regions, players will find gameplay that’s a bit abridged from the MOBA that’s dominated desktop gaming and esports leagues for the last decade-plus. Wild Rift is optimized to make the game work on much smaller smartphone screens – which also means touch controls and slightly shorter 15-20 minute rounds that suits phone gaming better than standard League matches that regularly last twice as long (or longer). Champions from League PC are slowly being added, though some have been tweaked for mobile play, and there’s a new map that revamps the classic Summoner’s Rift. Thanks to regular developer videos and open betas, we know a lot about Wild Rift. If you aren’t in an open beta region yet, you can pre-register for the game right now on Android (not iOS yet, except very limited testing). Below is everything we’ve heard about the game so far. We don’t know the League of Legends: Wild Rift release date for the full version of the game, it’s far enough along to have open betas in much of the world, which is a good sign. Wild Rift was first introduced in October 2019 as part of Riot Games’ 10th anniversary celebration of League of Legends’ debut, and in mid-2020, we heard the game was being tested in an early alpha in two regions: Brazil and the Philippines. Wild Rift had a Regional Closed Beta in September 2020 in several Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines and Indonesia, followed by an open beta that’s been ongoing in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. By the beginning of 2021, the open beta had begun to roll out to Europe and the Americas on March 29, but we haven’t heard about Wild Rift a release date. As for Wild Rift’s price, we doubt it will cost anything to start the game. Like the base League of Legends game, the mobile version will be free-to-play, with in-game microtransactions funneling money for champion unlocks and new cosmetics to the company. The open betas have some microtransactions integrated in the game: while players will get introductory champions just for playing, other champions and skins can be paid for via in-game currency (Wild Cores) bought with real money – even in the closed betas. After the betas, all accounts will be wiped and microtransaction value will be refunded with a 20% bonus as Riot’s ‘thank you’ for testing the game. Riot assures that no champions will be microtransaction-only nor will there be pay-to-win stat boosts.
