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

Xonra·Jul 7, 2015·3 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

SerevasJul 7, 20155 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.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

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.

Endorsing it - Good Promoting it - Good Using it - sure - Good Investing 30 million dollars into a voice program that you aren't buying out - Dumb

30 million dollars. For what? It is good right now if you are using it for its intended purpose. What is 30 million dollars going to do to improve it? It isn't as if this is "Joe Bob Voice" no, it is Curse...Curse aren't noobs, they aren't new, and they sure as hell aren't broke. What is the actual point of giving them 30....million....dollars?

SerevasJul 7, 20151 votes

Typically stock options is the reason for investing in a company, as that's what you get in return for your investment, so technically Riot did purchase a chunk of Curse. It's not a gift, it's an investment, two very different things.

SxliJul 7, 20151 votes

With an investment you`re generally paying for chunks of shares. So now when curse makes a decision, riot will be there to vote on whatever curse wants to do.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

With an investment you`re generally paying for chunks of shares. So now when curse makes a decision, riot will be there to vote on whatever curse wants to do.

I highly doubt that. That would be a huge downside for Curse, as League is far from their only game.

They work with multiple MMOs, other Mobas, games like Minecraft, etc.

I highly doubt they would give Riot any say in what they do because Riot would just vote no on anything non-league related.

SerevasJul 7, 20151 votes

You seem to be missing the point.

Riot has stock in Curse, which is what they bought for that 30 million. IF they vote down everything non-league related, they would be hurting their own investment, which is the equivalent of tossing 30 million dollars into the incinerator.

Doing such a thing would be grounds to declare you mentally incompetent of making your own legal decisions.

Riot is just diversifying their interests, which is an intelligent business decision.

Decisions for a company, such a Curse or Riot, are made by a board of directors, large enough interest in a company guarantees you a spot on that board, so yes Riot is likely now involved in the decision making of Curse, and no it's not necessarily a down side.

XonraJul 7, 20152 votes

{quoted}

You seem to be missing the point.

Riot has stock in Curse, which is what they bought for that 30 million. IF they vote down everything non-league related, they would be hurting their own investment, which is the equivalent of tossing 30 million dollars into the incinerator.

Doing such a thing would be grounds to declare you mentally incompetent of making your own legal decisions.

Riot is just diversifying their interests, which is an intelligent business decision.

Decisions for a company, such a Curse or Riot, are made by a board of directors, large enough interest in a company guarantees you a spot on that board, so yes Riot is likely now involved in the decision making of Curse, and no it's not necessarily a down side.

No you seem to be missing the point.

They don't have stock in Curse.

They didn't invest in CURSE...they invested SPECIFICALLY in Curse Voice.

That is a very very big distinction to make, and one that I think people are missing in their arguments here.

SxliJul 7, 20151 votes

Okay I guess I phrased it wrong because you misunderstood. By investing in curse voice, (getting stocks in return) here`s what happens.

Riot gets money, maybe not much but they get a bit from any ads on the curse voice client. they get to help tailor the curse voice client overlay in league better and set it up in a way they might like a bit more. Get a vote in general decision making when it comes to CURSE VOICE

Curse voice gets promotion from Riot and their support.

Both companies benefit from this

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Okay I guess I phrased it wrong because you misunderstood. By investing in curse voice, (getting stocks in return) here`s what happens.

Riot gets money, maybe not much but they get a bit from any ads on the curse voice client. they get to help tailor the curse voice client overlay in league better and set it up in a way they might like a bit more. Get a vote in general decision making when it comes to CURSE VOICE

Curse voice gets promotion from Riot and their support.

Both companies benefit from this

Riot doesn't get any money. Curse only gets money from Curse voice through advertisements. They aren't going to suddenly share that meager amount with Riot.

That also wouldn't make any sense. Riot gives them 30 million for a return on investment that, assuming they split the advertisement money from the ads on Curse voice 50/50...they might get that back in...2 million years or so? Realistically.

Ad revenue on a product like that honesty isn't as much as maybe you are assuming it is. By the time riot would get 30 million dollars in ad revenue, let alone 10% of that, League of Legends likely won't even be a game anymore. that is the most terrible ROI in the history of ever if that is the actual plan.

But, again, they aren't getting any stocks, nor is it any kind of partnership because this is directly from the La times "A Riot spokesman said the company made the investment to help promote technology development at Curse. But he noted that it was not a partnership"

So basically, this is nothing more than "here have 30 million dollars". No partnership, no stocks, no investing directly in Curse. Just money to help promote Curse voice and make it bigger.

There is no ROI, there is no getting money in return. That seems extremely pointless to me given what information has been made available.

Curse seems to be the only company benefiting from this.

SxliJul 7, 20151 votes

I dont know if they are getting stocks in return for their investment or not (I think itd be a stupid business move not to)

But if they aren`t I think they are using it to avoid having to make an integrated in-game voice client. This way they can just be like "Hey we believe in Curse Voice and their product. Use them for voice chatting in game."

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I dont know if they are getting stocks in return for their investment or not (I think itd be a stupid business move not to)

But if they aren`t I think they are using it to avoid having to make an integrated in-game voice client. This way they can just be like "Hey we believe in Curse Voice and their product. Use them for voice chatting in game."

Right, but they can just say "Hey we believe in Curse voice and their product", which they already have, without giving them 30 million dollars lol

I mean, it already works fine (I've used it and it works, I just don't know anyone else that uses it, and I don't really care for voice chat with random people in this game).

I guess without a lot more info, it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense given the amount of money they just dumped into it.

Especially given the amount of things that 30 million dollars could fix in the actual game

Like their own voice system for cheaper Fixing the god awful coding Paying the salary for actual support staff instead of bots for most auto responses Helping to set up a sort of players union for E-Sports since they are so invested there.

Just seems they could have improved so much more directly with League and I don't see the actual benefits of investing 30 million (I can't get over that amount) to Curse Voice for a voice system that already works perfectly fine.

SxliJul 7, 20152 votes

I agree with what you`re saying man, but as a computer science major, there are a slew of problems with creating an integrated voice client in-game especially from the ground up.

They have been consistently working on the coding and the way skillshots work so i`m not to mad about that.

I do agree with wanting better support staff and not bots

A players union would be good, but I think that would require a few of other companies to back it up as well.

I honestly dont think were getting all the details about the investment. But I doubt riot would just give 30 million away. So until we are absolutly sure we have all the facts we can only speculate what`s going on.

TeemoJenkinsJul 7, 20151 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.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

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.

This isn't new, and Riot stated it themselves in multiple places, but give me a sec.

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-curse-riot-20150707-story.html

http://www.curseinc.com/news/64-riot-has-made-an-investment-in-curse

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/07/02/league-of-legends-developer-riot-games-invests-in-curse.aspx

The first link is the source citing the ridiculous sum of money they are investing.

Frosty FingahsJul 7, 20151 votes

Because Rito.

TeemoJenkinsJul 7, 20151 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.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

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.

They aren't buying Curse voice, just investing in it, which makes me only further beg the question of...why?

If they were making it "League only" then I could understand.....maybe. They could do some good things with it. But I don't see the point of investing 30 friggin million dollars into a voice platform for many other games to benefit from as well, especially when there are other choices for voice options that many people still use.

I know plenty of people who still don't like Curse, and I'm even not a fan, because I don't care for the buttons and such it puts in game, because there is already enough screen taken up with the normal, current UI. Extra buttons and such don't help.

Drunk RummateJul 7, 20151 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.

EleshakaiJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

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.

I can't... curse has a notoriously bad history of network security, having been involved in the unintentional mass distribution of viruses several times. Most people I know with tech backgrounds don't use their software much because they're not exactly the most secure source.

But Riot investing in Curse still makes sense since Curse has such a huge network relating to the gaming industry. As a business, it makes sense for Riot to diversify their interests, and if Riot is looking to get into any other markets(since it's a pretty safe bet eventually they'll make another game), having a platform they can rely on to distribute news is a good idea.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

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

Sky ShadowJul 7, 20151 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.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sky Shadow,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=2dIZArrz,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2015-07-07T21:07:00.413+0000)

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.

It doesn't need an in game voice system. This has been argued over and over again since this game was a game.

This game is toxic enough with chat, the last thing I want to deal with his hearing people arguing in voice chat all game on top of things.

It does not need to be auto implemented, and should stay an option. But, none of these responses explain why they invested 30 million dollars. Curse voice is fine as is, and it is for a LOT of games, not just League, so what is the point? If they were outright buying it, then sure, but they aren't.

Also, 30 million is a big number, but it isn't as if, as I said already, Curse is some small backyard company. Curse is and has been a big deal for a very long time.

Sky ShadowJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

It doesn't need an in game voice system. This has been argued over and over again since this game was a game.

See here's the thing. With other Mobas popping up left and right, with Heroes of the Storm made by Blizzard being one of the newer additions Riot may see the need to set the bar for what MOBAs should be. There's also always gotta be a niche to get people to play their game over the competitors.

Blizzard has voice chat available in-game for World of Warcraft for example, so HotS isn't off the table for implementation and Riot know this. So from a business standpoint. It's better to be ahead than behind because let's be honest, voice chat in MOBAs will happen. It's just a matter of "when?".

This game is toxic enough with chat, the last thing I want to deal with his hearing people arguing in voice chat all game on top of things.

I agree that the community isn't the greatest, however I will say that in my experience with voice chat with strangers (and believe me, I've joined and participated in 100's) it has always been a less toxic environment. I'd say out of 100 games, there would maybe be 1 or 2 incidents of arguments or relatable toxic behavior. Honestly, the reason why it seems that voice chat is less toxic is because people don't have the balls to say it over voice because there's the verbal acknowledgement that there is another human being on the other side.

Text-base chat will always be more toxic.

It does not need to be auto implemented, and should stay an option.

They can easily add into the options menu "Allow Voice Chat? Yes/No" option.

The idea behind it that I can see why Riot would think that was is "Why have our player-base use third party programs to communicate when we could make it available in-game?". People are going to use voice chat either way, so might as well make it available. They already pretty much promote the use of voice chat with the LCS.

Ever seen TSM or C9 without a headset/microphone and only communicate via pings? =P

It's because it's not as good/effective as voice chat, especially in a team-based game.

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sky Shadow,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=2dIZArrz,comment-id=000600000000,timestamp=2015-07-07T22:01:12.754+0000)

See here's the thing. With other Mobas popping up left and right, with Heroes of the Storm made by Blizzard being one of the newer additions Riot may see the need to set the bar for what MOBAs should be. There's also always gotta be a niche to get people to play their game over the competitors.

Blizzard has voice chat available in-game for World of Warcraft for example, so HotS isn't off the table for implementation and Riot know this. So from a business standpoint. It's better to be ahead than behind because let's be honest, voice chat in MOBAs will happen. It's just a matter of "when?".

I agree that the community isn't the greatest, however I will say that in my experience with voice chat with strangers (and believe me, I've joined and participated in 100's) it has always been a less toxic environment. I'd say out of 100 games, there would maybe be 1 or 2 incidents of arguments or relatable toxic behavior. Honestly, the reason why it seems that voice chat is less toxic is because people don't have the balls to say it over voice because there's the verbal acknowledgement that there is another human being on the other side.

Text-base chat will always be more toxic.

They can easily add into the options menu "Allow Voice Chat? Yes/No" option.

The idea behind it that I can see why Riot would think that was is "Why have our player-base use third party programs to communicate when we could make it available in-game?". People are going to use voice chat either way, so might as well make it available. They already pretty much promote the use of voice chat with the LCS.

Ever seen TSM or C9 without a headset/microphone and only communicate via pings? =P

It's because it's not as good/effective as voice chat, especially in a team-based game.

Long reply cut down - If you want voice, Curse is already there. Install it and use it. There is no point in making it a part of League.

The end.

EleshakaiJul 7, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sky Shadow,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=2dIZArrz,comment-id=000600000000,timestamp=2015-07-07T22:01:12.754+0000)

See here's the thing. With other Mobas popping up left and right, with Heroes of the Storm made by Blizzard being one of the newer additions Riot may see the need to set the bar for what MOBAs should be. There's also always gotta be a niche to get people to play their game over the competitors.

Blizzard has voice chat available in-game for World of Warcraft for example, so HotS isn't off the table for implementation and Riot know this. So from a business standpoint. It's better to be ahead than behind because let's be honest, voice chat in MOBAs will happen. It's just a matter of "when?".

I agree that the community isn't the greatest, however I will say that in my experience with voice chat with strangers (and believe me, I've joined and participated in 100's) it has always been a less toxic environment. I'd say out of 100 games, there would maybe be 1 or 2 incidents of arguments or relatable toxic behavior. Honestly, the reason why it seems that voice chat is less toxic is because people don't have the balls to say it over voice because there's the verbal acknowledgement that there is another human being on the other side.

Text-base chat will always be more toxic.

They can easily add into the options menu "Allow Voice Chat? Yes/No" option.

The idea behind it that I can see why Riot would think that was is "Why have our player-base use third party programs to communicate when we could make it available in-game?". People are going to use voice chat either way, so might as well make it available. They already pretty much promote the use of voice chat with the LCS.

Ever seen TSM or C9 without a headset/microphone and only communicate via pings? =P

It's because it's not as good/effective as voice chat, especially in a team-based game.

Blizzard has already said they have no intention of adding voice chat to hots because they don't see a point since nobody uses the vc in any of their other software.

AntiSkillshotJul 7, 20151 votes

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

XonraJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

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

Right, was just a timeline of events going from not liking it suddenly to giving them 30 mil.

My overall point is, what is the actual goal and point. they aren't investing in Curse, which people keep seeming to be misunderstanding in this thread, they are investing directly, and solely, into Curse Voice.

The thing is, Curse voice has been working fine since it came out. I just don't understand what the point of the 30 mil is. They aren't buying Curse voice, the program already works fine....what is the actual point.

AntiSkillshotJul 7, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Right, was just a timeline of events going from not liking it suddenly to giving them 30 mil.

My overall point is, what is the actual goal and point. they aren't investing in Curse, which people keep seeming to be misunderstanding in this thread, they are investing directly, and solely, into Curse Voice.

The thing is, Curse voice has been working fine since it came out. I just don't understand what the point of the 30 mil is. They aren't buying Curse voice, the program already works fine....what is the actual point.

The only logical thing I can think of is them investing in Curse Voice so they can make a voice system specific to League.