Ex-Riot devs’ new MMORPG could be a serious rival to New World, World of Warcraft, and FF14

Former Riot Games and Blizzard Entertainment lead, Greg Street, has teased the announcement of their new studio and MMORPG, stating that it's coming from a team that's "stacked with industry veterans". If you're a fan of MMORPGs, this mysterious project should have you cautiously excited.

There's no word on what exact kind of MMORPG it'll be or what sort of world it'll throw players into, but with the current MMORPG ecosystem in the state that it is, this project may just be a shot in the arm the genre needs. Fingers crossed the reveal meets expectations!

But who exactly is Greg Street? Well, having previously worked on World of Warcraft between the years of 2008 and 2013, he'd have worked on the excellent Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria expansions, meaning that he's got some nice MMO creditability under his belt. He'd later move onto Riot Games, where among other roles, he'd kick off the development of that companies' own MMO within its R&D department.

He would eventually leave Riot, due to a "combo of personal and professional considerations". After moving closer to his family, he'd then begin work as the studio head of a new unannounced team during April.

Greg Street has previously been incredibly open about his own personal perspectives on game development, as well as the projects he has worked on. He was even giving out interviews on the Riot Games MMO long before the first Project L interviews were published by us, even though the fighting game was further along in development.

So, putting Street to the side, why else should you be excited? Well, we're currently in a slow period for MMO releases. We've long moved past the explosive heights on FF14, and other titles like World of Warcraft and New World are running low on gas these days. With the exception of Classic World of Warcraft's hardcore servers, there's not much out there that's particularly fresh.

All we really have are long-shot projects with no firm release date, and Blue Protocol. Riot is of course still chugging along with its MMORPG, and there are rumours surrounding Blizzcon this year for sure, but aside from that the board is mostly clear. There's absolutely space for a new project to cut out its own niche. That is, unless something like Guild Wars 3 randomly explodes into the world - an unlikely possibility to say the least.

Street has stated this new studio will be "unconventional", which may just be what the genre needs right now. If you're an MMORPG fan, it's a good idea to keep tabs on Street and his team in the coming days. A reveal that may shake up the genre is imminent.