One of the largest development studios in Australia, Wargaming Sydney, has been acquired by Riot Games - makers of League of Legends and Valorant. The news is somewhat surprising as Wargaming Sydney has been integral in creating tech for and supporting both World of Tanks and World of Warships.

As per the announcement, the studio will be rebranded to Riot Sydney and shift its focus towards Riot properties. With Wargaming Sydney’s entire development team joining Riot Sydney, the publishing team is set to remain a part of Wargaming.

The newly established Riot Sydney will use their considerable expertise to further augment the League of Legends, VALORANT, and tech teams at Riot. The studio will be a key contributor to Riot's Development Studios organization under industry veteran and Riot’s Head of Development Studios, Molly Mason-Boule. Under Molly's leadership, Riot is expanding its approach to global development, and over time, Riot is looking forward to growing the game industry in Australia and will also continue to explore similar opportunities to add expert talent from veteran studios.

“We are really excited to bring these talented developers and teams to Riot,” said Marc Merrill, Co-Founder, and President of Games. “The Rioters that have had the opportunity to work with members of the Sydney team are confident not only in the tech they’ve built over the years but, more importantly, in the people who’ve built it. Naz (Naresh Hirani, Head of Development, Riot Sydney) and the dev teams at the studio have a long history of working in ways that will complement Riot’s ability to deliver value to our players and we really look forward to collaborating with them.”

“Being part of Wargaming has been a phenomenal journey for us over the last 10 years, and it’s helped our studio grow and thrive," said Naz. "We were really impressed by the cultural fit we’ve experienced in our dealings with everyone at Riot, and we can’t wait to bring our expertise in global development to the respective teams. I know I speak for the whole team when I say how excited we all are to become part of Riot and help deliver amazing experiences to players.”

As a talented home-grown studio we can't wait to see what the team develops as a part of Riot Games.