No. That's not what happened.
Riot opened a McDonald's
They offered cheap, mass produced meat products that look like wormburgers, puree'd chicken-like substance, and 180 degree coffee that could burn your lap, for a relatively cheap price, that made consumers decide between their product, which was resilient to inflation, and cheaper than their steak, and grill competitors.
They franchised through the local Tencent distributors to spread word of mouth and gain greater talent over time into their workforce. Tencent put future employees through college, and then put them to work for Riot.
Over time, as profit margins spread, they began to address consumer complaints and suggestions about their products:
-After a Lawsuit due to overheated coffee, they changed the cups it's delivered in, and lowered the temperature to something that won't give you third degree burns. Furthermore, they diversified into frozen coffees.
-They heeded customer complaints about their products looking like wormburgers. As a compromise, Riot began offering bigger, better, Angus burgers in prettier wrapping, better tasting sauces, and primer choices of beef, for a price.
-They introduced customers to their process for making McNuggets. The chicken is pureed and then formed into 6 distinct shapes for production from the factory. This dismissed rumors of some "slime" mystery substance, and allowed consumers to appreciate their product a little more.
-Customers complained about a checkout line being too slow, so they decided to automate the ordering process to keep up with current trends and technology.
McDonalds is EXACTLY what Riot is.
They introduced a cheap consumer product 1/5 of the world's population has played.
The product was inexpensive (License and shortly after free) to use.
- It appealed to people on the go who didn't want to devote whole days to one game. Their budget was (and is still) about 30 minutes of your time. This is fast food gaming.
-It's increased its talent pool, by becoming part of college campus life, both as a consumer and a programmer. Without talent comes a need to diversify their product.
-It has had to deal with credit card companies and legal disputes because of chargeback attempts by consumers, which both led to larger proliferation of riot cards sold in stores, and access to free content (Hextech chests) in order to in part discourage chargeback abuse. (Hextech Chests could also be a parallel to a Happy Meal).
-They have improved their product over time, offering far more desirable products both in the form of skins and champions to differentiating markets. They still offer the cheap and easy champions, but have added more exotic, more expensive and more dressed up new models, but eventually are going to move toward their entire product line being Quality.
-Furthermore, as they've grown, they have gained the ability to differentiate and target a market. In the beginning, their market was probably 14-22 year old Gen X gamers. Now, it's much bigger, and they are catering not only to Gen X, but to the NEW 14 year olds, and the people in between. That's a very broad market, so they might even think about trimming it down to a reliable, more focused group, because as people age, their utility in any specific game usually falls. Like the company I work for, they probably care far more about new players learning in a fast, split decision environment, because that's the product they are now offering, are more malleable to suggestion, and can be molded into the perfect consumers of a product, whereas an older player can't.
-The Chicken McNugget refers to their expanded universe, as well as their expanded role in communicating development points through the PBE and Redposts.
Like it or not...... Riot has gone Commercial Fast Food.
