TL;DR: Current Esports President John Needham will lead a new combined publishing and esports organization in service of players that will create a seamless experience between each game and its esports, music, and publishing content. In addition, Riot’s TV and film development will now be led through two dedicated studios: an animation studio run by Christian Linke and a live-action studio led by Brian Wright.
What You Need to Know
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Familiar Faces Taking the Helm: John Needham, currently President of Esports, is our new President of Publishing & Esports, overseeing a combined group that includes publishing, esports, international, platform technology, and music. Riot’s TV and film development will now be led through two distinct studios, run by Christian Linke (animation) and Brian Wright (live-action).
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What it Means For Players: These changes will better connect our around-game content with the games themselves, leading to more cohesive experiences for players and fans. Under John’s leadership, our esports and publishing teams will create new integrated experiences that combine all of our esports, music, and creative publishing efforts. With two focused entertainment studios, players will get to see a world beyond Arcane in fresh and immersive ways.
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Commitment to Esports and Cinematic Experiences: By bringing publishing and esports closer together under a passionate and experienced leader, we’re doubling down on our dedication to esports while better integrating it with other around-game content. Separately, we are creating two distinct entertainment studios that will allow for more dedicated resources and greater focus on both animation excellence and the exploration of live-action projects.
Quotes
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From Dylan Jadeja, CEO:
“For the past year, we’ve been working to re-orient our organization and structure to serve players in a more aligned way. We want every moment a player spends with us to be worth it – and that's best achieved when we authentically blend our games, esports, music and storytelling into really cohesive, immersive adventures for them.
Today marks another step on that journey. John, Christian, and Brian are all incredible leaders and dedicated Rioters who care deeply about players. I have no doubt that, together with our game development teams, they will dream up even more memorable and defining moments players and Rioters can be proud of.”
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From John Needham, President of Publishing & Esports:
“This new role reflects Riot’s commitment to making it better to be a player. Having worked across teams at Riot, I’ve seen firsthand the power that authentic publishing and world-class esports can have in delivering exceptional player experiences. With both working together in a unified way, we hope to create moments and experiences that will be meaningful to players' lives.”
Leader Backgrounds
John Needham: John brings perspective and leadership from an extensive career in gaming, having worked across esports, publishing, and operations. He held significant roles at Riot, including leading Europe and North America on the publishing side before transitioning to his leadership roles in esports. Before joining Riot, John held senior leadership positions at Microsoft, Gazillion Entertainment, Cryptic Studios, and Sony Online Entertainment, among others.
Christian Linke: Christian will build on the success of Arcane in collaboration with Fortiche Production as the head of the animation studio. He started at Riot 14 years ago, first in player support before he quickly began using his talents as a composer to produce music for League of Legends, including for League events, cinematics, standalone albums, and in-game music. His experience led him to become the co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the award-winning animated series Arcane.
Brian Wright: Brian will lead the development of new live action projects as the head of Riot's live-action studio. Since joining Riot in 2021, shortly before Arcane’s global launch, Brian has been developing a slate of potential projects based on our existing lore and narrative. Prior to Riot Games, he was at Netflix, where he was head of family and young adult programming, launching successful series such as Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, and Shadow and Bone.
