Fan Favourite Characters Star in Cinematic Spot for Riot Games' Xbox Partnership

Creative production company We Are Royale (WAR) collaborated with Riot Games to produce the launch video announcing its entire library of PC and Mobile titles are now available on Xbox Game Pass: VALORANT, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, and Legends of Runeterra. The animated piece features a mashup of fan-favourite characters and gameplay from Riot’s titles.

Celebrating the significance of the partnership, which brings together two of the most passionate gaming communities in the world, the video welcomes players to unlock premium rewards and member-only benefits by simply linking their Riot and Game Pass accounts.

WAR combined original 3D animations, game footage, and moving typography to establish the visual language, with a cinematic and hyper-real feel. Conceptually, the narrative is built around five different cave scenes - each featuring a character sculpture specific to the Riot properties now available on Game Pass. Easter eggs, branded colour palettes, and other visual elements unique to each game are peppered throughout. 

WAR backlit the character sculptures with a geometric backdrop to strategically segment the game footage, cinematics, and messaging. The team spent a lot of time developing the textures and lighting to create detailed scenes to ensure that they struck a balance between the footage and sculptures. Additionally, green light emanates from cracks in the sculptures and cave-like environments as a visual metaphor for a pathway to experience Riot’s games.

“The goal of this piece was to create a fun and direct link for players to understand all the benefits they get when linking their Riot accounts to Game Pass, and we felt that building the narrative around key characters from these games was the best approach,” explains Jason Cook, executive creative director at WAR. “We teased out the character sculptures in close-ups, then revealed them all in a match-cut sequence at the end of the film.”

WAR used bold typography to highlight the perks of signing up. They experimented with different fonts and motion treatments to make the typography dynamic and eye-catching. At the end of the spot, both logos are revealed, built into the rock and unified with a neon light treatment. 

“This partnership provides great value for both Riot and Xbox communities, so it was a big deal for us, naturally,” concludes Jason. “The team at Riot was great to work with, as always. They were all hands-on in helping us push the creative as far as we could take it. We couldn't be happier with how the piece turned out.”