League of Legends Developer Riot Games Announces Project K, a Physical TCG Based in the League IP

Riot Games has announced Project K, the developer’s take on the physical TCG genre and a competitor to Magic: The Gathering. It’s based in the League of Legends IP and revolves around playing with friends in-person.

Riot said Project K is made by a “small” development team within the company led by game director Dave Guskin and executive producer Chengran Chai. It’s not publishing the game itself; rather, it’s found a publishing partner in China for an initial launch there in early 2025. A global launch is planned, however, and Riot is on the hunt for a publishing partner for the U.S. and other countries.

Riot said Project K is not a physical version of its existing digital collectible card game Legends of Luneterra, but “it does inherit some of the rich champion design philosophies of lore,” and also benefits from art drawn from other League IP games. Riot added that it wants to create “a thriving community with a competitive ecosystem,” and hopes for national and even global tournaments.

Project K appears to be Rune Battlegrounds, which was teased earlier this year by Riot’s team in China. A trailer showed off popular League characters such as Darius, Ahri, and Miss Fortune. At the time, Riot said it had no plans for a global release, but those plans have now changed.

It’s a busy time for League, which has just wrapped up Netflix animated show Arcane with the release of Season 2. As well as continued work on the hugely popular MOBA, League of Legends, it’s working on a League fighting game called 2XKO, and has a digital card game called Legends of Runeterra. There’s a League MMO in the works, too, although Riot has indicated it will be some time before it’s ready to show it off.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].