Riot Games expands publishing business with new Apac offices

TENCENT-OWNED game-maker Riot Games on Thursday (Feb 24) announced plans to open new publishing offices in the Philippines, India, Indonesia/Malaysia, and Thailand as part of its ongoing business reorganisation in the region.

This comes as part of the group's move to extend its South-east Asian business to the Asia-Pacific (Apac) region to include Japan and India, with a "massive focus on hyper-localisation".

It has appointed Alex Kraynov - who was up till recently, Riot's managing director of emerging markets - as its new managing director for Apac.

In its press statement, Riot announced Kraynov's appointed leaders within his team for key departments in the Apac publishing business.

These include country managers for Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia/Malaysia - alongside Apac roles comprising director of country management, head of publishing partnerships, head of marketing and head of business development.

Riot said this leadership team will continue to grow from 2022 and beyond, with individual country managers to be appointed for Thailand and India, as well as a head of regional tech.

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The group intends to diversify its operating model with publishing at the forefront, alongside its other business pillars of games, entertainment, e-sports and enterprise.

Kraynov sees Riot's reorganisation as a "natural step in progression" for Riot's publishing business in South-east Asia.

"This region is intricately diverse, with massive gaming communities that have diverse needs and a strong appetite for mobile gaming… Working towards more physical presences in our key Apac markets, we're extremely excited to double down on these efforts to continue striving towards being the most player-focused gaming company in the world," he said.

Prior to the reorganisation, Riot had been operating its South-east Asian business out of its Singapore hub office, which it re-established as its headquarters for South-east Asia in 2018. It also had an office in Japan.

Riot's most recently published game titles include Valorant, League of Legends: Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra. The group released Netflix animation series Arcane, and oversees the production of League of Legends spin-offs through its third-party publishing arm, Riot Forge.

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