I remember reading somewhere that Riot is going away from doing pure VU's and will only give a VU if its a part of a VGU. I would like to know why this is. With all of the champions that really need to be updated in the looks department, why limit the amount that are upgraded to about 2-3 a year?
This is mostly to maximize resources, having to think about both GU and VU at the same time helps make the champion more cohesive and minimize the time needed, while letting the teams focusing on another project entirely when one is finished.
##2014 Xerath, Kassadin, Gragas, Rengar, Nidalee, Skarner, Sona, Cassiopeia, Soraka, Viktor, Sion.
All those had either a Gameplay or a Visual + Gameplay update.
##2015 Zilean, Veigar, Morgana, Ryze, Gangplank, Fiora, Poppy
All those had either a Gameplay or a Visual + Gameplay update. Let's not forget all the Juggernaut and Marksmen update, which includes Juggernaut: Darius, Garen, Mordekaiser, Skarner, Nasus Marskamen: Caitlyn, Corki, Graves, Kog'Maw, Miss Fortune, Quinn, Ashe, Draven, Ezreal, Jinx, Kalista, Lucian, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch, Urgot, Varus, Vayne
##2016 Shen, Taric. We are missing Ryze (next patch) and Yorick. Warwick comes after the Assasin update, so Warwick update will probably be live after 2016 (early 2017). Let's not forget the Mage update, which includes Brand, Cassiopeia, Malzahar, Vel'Koz, Vladimir, Zyra, Anivia, Annie, Fiddlesticks, Swain, Syndra, Veigar, Xerath, Ziggs
2014: 11 champions 2015: 30 champions 2016: 16 champions + Yorick and Ryze
We are still missing the Assasin update, which will probably include at least 6 champions, making it a total of 24 champions.
I would say that the reason why they don't want to give champions just a VU is because that takes times, which could be invested on another champion's VGU. Not only that, but when a GU comes along, they'll most likely always give that champion a Visual Upgrade too.
all champions that need a VU also need a GU. so it makes no sense doing 2 different updates for a champion. anything released after fizz pretty much doesnt need a VU, anything released before fizz also needs a GU.
Not enough resources to have an opportunity to do VUs when there are champions who could use VGUs.
The art side of things is the bottle neck in terms of resources.
