Riot buys a chunk of the animation studio behind breakout hit Arcane

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Fortiche is currently working on the show's second season.

Key art for Riot's Arcane
(Image credit: Riot Games)

Riot Games has announced it's made an "equity investment" in Fortiche Production, the animation studio behind last year's Netflix smash hit Arcane, which gives the developer and publisher a "significant non-controlling stake in Fortiche." This isn't really a surprise: after all, Arcane is a pretty stunning show and seems to have done incredibly well in taking League of Legends outside its usual audience.

Riot and Fortiche have been associated for a long time even before Arcane, first working together on the music video Get Jinxed, and then other shorts including Warriors, Seconds, Pop/Stars and Rise.

Fortiche is currently working on the second season of Arcane, as well as other unannounced projects. The press release about the acquisition says that Arcane was the #1 show on Netflix for three weeks after launching, and hit the top 10 in over 52 countries. 

Pascal Charrue, Jérôme Combe, and Arnaud Delord are co-founders of Fortiche, and issued this statement: "The various collaborations with Riot Games, and especially Arcane, have made Fortiche Production a new major player on the international animation scene. Riot Games, by trusting us, has given us the means to achieve our common ambitions and has shown that it is possible to offer new content that can reach a large audience. In 2023, we will celebrate ten years of collaboration: there is no better way to symbolize the trust and ambitions of our two companies than this association!"

Nicolo Laurent, CEO of Riot, said: "In working with Fortiche, we collaborate to push the boundaries of what’s possible and raise expectations for how games can be represented in media. As proud as we are of Arcane, we know the best is yet to come."

Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."