The following interview has been edited for brevity.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: What hasArcanemeant to Riot Games as its first foray into the entertainment industry?
Marc Merrill:If we define entertainment as linear mediaTV, film, etc.thenArcanewould be our first foray.
© Netflix/Fortiche
To us, its been a bit of a dream come true.
We always dreamed that these characters were real and from a real place.
Of course, great recognition for our writers and Fortiche, our incredible partnerssuch incredible animation talent.
© Netflix
Its been a great milestone for Riot to reflect on the broad capabilities weve cultivated over many years.
io9: Were there any doubts that the show would be as successful as it was first announced?
Merrill:I think were always nervous, right?
© Netflix
We never quite know when were bringing something to bear.
We think its cool, and I think different people can have various levels of optimism about different things.
But I think its safe to say that nobody anticipated the level of positive response that has happened.
© Netflix
io9: Before the premiere, incomplete episodes of the second season leaked online.
How did everyone at the company react?
Did they see fans rally to prevent the leaks from spreading?
Merrill:We all thought it was super cool to see fans rallying to help mitigate the leaks.
Its better seeing it with fresh eyes, without watermarks, and on a big screen with great sound.
We kind of all took it in stride.
It wasnt a leak from one of our vendors.
It was a leak from one of our partners vendor, and those things happen.
This doesnt mean that there isnt anything to learn.
You cant bat 1,000 on everything.
Was that ever the goal for Riot, to lead to moreLeague of Legendsplayers?
Merrill:Not in a one-to-one fashion.
We expected that if we did a great job,Leagueplayers would feel pride and a deeper attachment.
We see that manifest in play rates, enthusiasm, and willingness to share.
But its not a requirement or why we madeArcane.
That doesnt mean thats because the games bad, right?
The game is what it is.
Just like [how] not everybody wants to go play American football, right?
Some people want to watch it.
We view it like that.
That would be great, but its a bonus.
Its not why we did it.
Merrill:Yeah, we have.
The actual creation budget is significantly less than that.
It wasnt quite $250 [million].
It was significantly less than that.
Its all made by hand by incredible creatorsan army of them.
We think that it is incredibly worth it.
First is, what are we trying to do?
And what do they need?
But those are assumptions.
Then we go on the journey to give a shot to make this thing.
We take two steps forward and one step back and learn.
Thats true all over the place.
Were not this finance-led, cost-accounting-oriented business regarding how we drive decisions.
Were a mission-driven company.
Were here to make it better to be a player.
We are trying to build a few things that are incredibly special and cool for a specific audience.
Its trying to enhance the value of being a player and to do something worthy of their expectations.
Our interests are aligned with that of our players.
Were only rewarded if we do a great job.
I think thats a healthy feedback loop, because nobody ever has to spend any money in our games.
Because we achieved that, were all incredibly thrilled about it.
io9: Are you comfortable with ballparking what the actual budget was forArcane?
Merrill:Ill give you a ballpark range.
Its somewhere between 60 to 75% of that estimate.
Other companies make a lot of great stuff and do it the way that makes sense for them.
Were not trying to change the animation industry in any profound way.
The goal is to do something great for an audience.
We havent changed at all.
Riot is the exact same as we were from when we started.
We dont define ourselves based on games, entertainment, esports, music, or anything.
We define ourselves based on the audience that were trying to serve.
Thats what we do.
io9: Was crunch an issue between Fortiche and Riot Games when getting the show out?
If not, how did the two collaborate to prevent it?
Merrill:From my perspective, it never became an issue.
There are always trade-offs.
Riot has hundreds of artists who paint all day and engineers who write code all day.
Our people are our most valuable asset.
Throwback to one of the most iconic scene of ACT III.
No fewer than 56 talented people worked on this sequence, which were sure will become iconic.
Great teams make great products, and we take a stab at optimize for that.
That philosophy informs how we work.
It doesnt mean we have it perfectly dialed.
It means we have to learn when were taking on new tasks.
We must figure out how to get it right, but we can iterate and learn as we go.
io9:Arcanes success isnt the only thing thats had Riot Games make headlines.
The company also saw mass layoffs this year, totaling 530 employees.
Merrill:In an ideal world, that never should have happened.
Some of that is derived from a belief that making great things is easier than it actually is.
io9: How has the companys reset affected the ongoing development of Riot GamesLeagueMMO?
Merrill:The reset has dramatically increased the likelihood of success.
you’re able to give a mediocre idea to a great team, and theyll make it great.
We must ensure we have great teams with great vision, perspective, and direction.
It needs great things.
Riot needs to be focused on making a few special things that are great.
We do, too.
Why didValorantsucceed and would that even still be possible if it were launching today?
We have to calibrate constantly.
Thats how we think about everything, includingArcaneandValorant.
As the world continues to evolve, theres more great things available [and] player expectations going up.
Competition benefits the consumer, and our goal is to make it better to be a player.
When other companies do great things, were thrilled.
Then weve got to up our game.
Necessity is the mother of all invention.
That creates the conditions for us to push ourselves and figure out what else can we do.
All of that innovation is driven from that exact same perspective.
Especially when those game companys hallmarks are based on imbuing the human element into their art direction.
One is a category around developer workflow improvements.
So then I can iterate on is this fun and spend a lot more time my time doing that.
I think thats generally great.
No, I do not.
Theres a whole bunch of exciting stuff available there that wasnt available before.League of Legendsis a sport.
I could give you dozens of use cases and examples that are really exciting.
From our perspective, we see a lot of opportunity to make it better to be a player.
All episodes ofArcaneare streaming on Netflix.
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