So Riot, Gotta Ask....why are you investing in Curse Voice?

Xonra·7/7/2015, 7:48:38 PM·3 votes·1,561 views

I've just seen the price tag of $30 mil that Riot gave to curse, specifically to invest in Curse voice, so it begs the question:

Why?

When this first started, Riot ended up banning Curse Voice after about 2 months max, to the point of banning players for using it.

Skip ahead, and Riot basically takes the idea for the camp timers and implements them into the game.

Skip ahead, now Riot has invested in a voice chat system....for $30 million dollars....when there are numerous voice chat options already readily available, and ones that don't add stuff to my client to further clutter up my screen.

I just have to wonder why. How do you go from banning a program, stealing their timers, then investing $30 friggin million dollars (that is a lot, let's be real here) into that same program?

28 Comments

Serevas7/7/2015, 8:33:17 PM5 votes

Because it's a simple lightweight program that allows you to voice comm with other players simply by pressing the link they throw into the chat.

The previous curse thing was banned because it was a third party program that amplified your gameplay by giving you advantages that others might not be using, because that's no longer the case as jungle timers are added into the base game itself, there's really no downside to Riot endorsing and investing in Curse Voice.

Endorsing an existing program is also a logical shortcut because there's a tremendous number of people asking for in game chat, if they endorse curse, they tell you to go get that as they're an investor and support their work, thus not having to integrate the chat system into the game itself, which is a gigantic headache. Plus if anything goes wrong with it, and things typically go horribly wrong with in game chats frequently, it's not on their heads to fix it.

I frankly think that it's a rather sound business decision despite the Smite advertisements, but let's face it, Smite is a dramatically different game, it's highly unlikely that people would find it a solid substitute, I know I sure didn't.

Frosty Fingahs7/7/2015, 7:49:19 PM1 votes

Because Rito.

TeemoJenkins7/7/2015, 7:54:16 PM1 votes

I don't understand that either then... I literally downloaded Smite because it was advertised on Curse lol... not a super smart decision my friends. Personally Smite didn't do it for me at all... but if even a small number of users of League like Smite more... the investment backfires.

Drunk Rummate7/7/2015, 8:49:10 PM1 votes

Well with Skype getting substantially worse every update due to the idiots over at Microsoft I can see Curse potentially taking over the market for gaming voips. It's probably not a bad investment at all, and they're getting in at a good time if it takes off.

This is the kind of thing that people with finance degrees in valuation decide on after countless hours of research. (I would know, I have a finance degree and I've done lots of valuation). It may seem silly on the surface but there's probably a very good reason for it.

Xonra7/7/2015, 8:51:51 PM1 votes

Thanks for the responses. Not sure why the downvote though.

Sky Shadow7/7/2015, 9:07:00 PM1 votes

A company doesn't generally invest in another unless they have an intention to benefit from it in some way.

In Riot's case, with them investing so much money into Curse, they now probably hold the majority of the shares and can contribute business decisions. I have no idea what Curse's net worth is, but I would assume 30 Million would be a large portion for a free service program.

This also opens up the possibility of Curse officially being implemented into the client/game, which I think is a good thing. League has needed an in-game optional voice chat feature for a long time.

TeemoJenkins7/7/2015, 7:49:09 PM1 votes

Please site your source that Riot is investing in Curse... last time I checked Curse still has Smite ad's every time I log in.

AntiSkillshot7/7/2015, 10:18:20 PM1 votes

About three months ago, they said they were fine with Curse Voice...