Riot co-founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merril to lead development on new title

The co-founders of League of Legends developer Riot Games have hinted at big changes for their role - and something new from the studio.

In a blog post, Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill said they will be "much more focused on games again" rather than running the company.

The duo reflected that when Riot was founded in 2006, most of their time was spent working on League of Legends. But as the game's success grew and the studio branched into esports, their contribution to development diminished.

"The majority of our time is allocated to 'managing' the company rather than focusing on creating incredible experiences for players, which is what we really love to do," the duo wrote.

Going forward, company operations will be primarily handled by the senior leadership team: CFO Dylan Jadeja, CTO Scott Gelb and president Nicolo Laurent. This will enable Beck and Merrill to focus on development once again.

"All three are longtime Rioters who have been integral to shaping our company's vision, strategy, and culture over the last decade," the post reads. "We are thrilled to be able to have a great team of such capable leaders and look forward to working with them to finally put the 's' in Riot Games."

This last part strongly hints at plans for a brand new title from the studio, which has been primarily focused on League of Legends since it launched. Riot has dabbled in mobile minigames in the past, but League remains its only substantial release.

There's no word on whether this new title will be a League spin-off or a completely new IP.