LoL players stumped as to why Riot hasn’t introduced this ‘fundamental’ skins feature

League of Legends players are again on the offensive against Riot Games over the lack of a simple preview system for skins, which would allow would-be buyers to know exactly what they’re spending their hard-earned Riot Points on.

The League community discussed the lack of a skin preview feature in a Sept. 23 Reddit thread, with the original poster struggling to understand why such a simple quality-of-life addition to the shop isn’t already implemented. “I am still amazed that to this day there isn’t a way to preview a skin from the store before buying it,” a user said, adding “It seems like a fundamental thing to be able to do.”

Others soon chimed in with their own opinions on the matter. Whereas the original poster seems genuinely confused with Riot’s stance on the matter, some immediately theorized as to why the feature doesn’t exist.

One user claimed that skins are too ugly up close and that previews would actually reduce sales. Another said Riot is teasing elements like the splash art and backstory instead of the skin itself, hoping interested parties would purchase the skin on impulse.

But perhaps the most heavily criticizing stance alleges Riot doesn’t put enough resources into League. “It takes them a full year for a single visual update [and] multiple years for a full champion update.” the user said, adding that it takes League devs longer to put out a visual update for a champion than it does for other triple-A devs to make entire games and systems.

Some users praised League’s mobile counterpart Wild Rift for having these exact features present in its build. Others brought up the feature’s existence in rival MOBA’s Dota 2 and the now-deceased Heroes of the Storm. Both Valve and Blizzard ensured such a feature was prevalent long ago—so what’s the hold-up, Riot?

This isn’t the first time League of Legends fans have expressed frustration with the game’s outdated client. Cosmetics are only one segment that seems lacking, with the client itself often criticized for poor performance. Riot launched the Client Cleanup Project in 2019, promising to enhance and fix the dated client. At the time of writing, the blog post hasn’t been updated for over two years.

Riot’s silence further fuels discussions like this. League still runs on an engine from 2009, and though it has received some visual updates and changes, the underlying issues still plague users to this day. Time will tell just how high up such a feature sits on Riot’s to-do list.