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Riot Games to open London office

League of Legends firm will re-establish UK presence to "grow the player base"

Riot Games has announced plans to open a new office in London just over a year after leaving the UK.

The company behind the hugely popular League of Legends previously had an office in Brighton, but closed this branch last March. Since then, Riot's nearest location has been its regional headquarters in Dublin.

However, head of UK publishing Mark Cox has revealed via the firm's official forums that a new office will be opened in London, eSports Observer reports. Cox was previously based in Australia but has returned in order to oversee the move.

Answering questions from the community, Cox said the primary objective of the London branch would be to "grow the player base".

"With more players comes a more vibrant and active community," he said. "I am not saying you are all not passionate and mad about LoL but think about the possibilities with more players and more active community members. We can do more great things and have more people taking part.

"Growing the player base allows us to communicate more effectively with you all and enable as many core PC players as possible to jump in and trial the game through communications and activities outside of the client and in game."

One forum user asked if Riot had considered establishing a base in a Midlands city such as Nottingham, Leicester or Birmingham, but Cox replied that the new branch "will be in London 100%".

Riot is just the latest in a string of high-profile games companies that have come to the UK capital in the last couple of years. Others include Rovio, Gram Games, CCP and a new games venture from TV production firm Endemol.