League of Legends game director Andrei “Meddler” van Roon gave fans insight into how skin lines are assessed in today’s dev blog.
The Riot dev broke down the four factors that determine whether a skin line is expanded, reworked, or retired.
- How did the skin perform relative to expectations?
- Are players more interested in seeing this theme return than most other themes?
- Did this skin release get more or less support from us than usual?
- How many more champions exist that players are telling us they think would fit well into this theme?
The factors vary from player engagement and performance to Riot promoting the thematic through trailers. And if there aren’t any more champions that will fit in with a cosmetic line, Riot will focus on other themes.
The High Noon skins, for example, weren’t too popular initially. So Riot rebooted the skin line in 2018 with little promotion and it “performed very well,” according to Meddler. This put High Noon on the high priority list, adding Senna and Irelia to the skin line.
Sugar Rush, on the other hand, has “done poorly” in both of its releases. Since it landed in the bottom 10 percent for 2019, Riot decided to vault the skin line. And Star Guardian skins consistently perform “consistently well.” But Meddler explains that Riot doesn’t want to “force the theme” on a champion when it doesn’t make sense.
The Debonair skin line has gotten mixed reviews, with some cosmetics doing well and others missing the mark. While it’s possible that the skin line will be rebooted in the future, it’d need to be reworked a bit before release.
