Brexit bites in Runeterra: Riot announces League of Legends UK price hikes, and the EU Referendum is entirely to blame.
When the UK marginally voted in an advisory referendum to maybe leave the EU if the terms were right, the Pound took an immediate hit. It was expected. Then Theresa May, formerly a remain campaigner, decided it was more important to be the Prime Minister than stick to her own beliefs – and instead chose to stick it to the British people out of sheer greed and spite – and we started to feel the effects.
The Pound is nearly 1:1 with the Euro, and it’s not so far off getting on parity with the US Dollar, either. But still, Brexit campaigners were buoyant that they were “taking back control” and their supporters were jubilant.
Then, it started to hit them in areas they noticed.
Poorer regions of the UK that voted to leave the EU, like Cornwall and South Wales, sought assurances that they wouldn’t be losing their EU funding, in spite of being some of the biggest recipients of European support. Jobs were being moved to Europe, but it really wasn’t anything to do with Brexit, honest.
But what really upset people was when they started getting less chocolate in Toblerone, before Unilever fell out with the UK supermarkets over having to raise the price of UK staples like Marmite, Pot Noodles and I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter. It just shows that things really have to hit people at home before they, you know, hit home.
Anyway, back to the video game news: Riot are putting up prices for League of Legends in the UK, and they’re blaming it all on Brexit.
Specifically, it’s going to cost UK players 20% more to purchase Riot Points to spend within League of Legends, owing entirely to the devaluation of the Pound relative to other currencies following the Brexit vote and subsequent invocation of Article 50.
Last June, the UK voted to leave the European Union, triggering a drop in the value of the pound relative to other global currencies, particularly the US dollar. This change meant that while UK players were spending the same number of pounds on RP as before, players elsewhere in the world were paying a lot more in comparison.
Like a lot of companies who sell digital content, we monitored the situation closely over several months to see whether the pound would recover, but it’s been over a year now and we feel we’ve reached the point where a price change is necessary to restore parity.
In order to do that, we will be raising the price of RP by 20% on 25th July 2017 at 23:59 BST. This is a one-time change to restore balance in RP pricing around the world. None of your existing purchases will be affected.
More specifically, in addition to the overall 20% hike, Riot will be retiring the old £2.50 price point, and instead introducing a new £15 to better balance out the post-Brexit League of Legend prices. Here are the full details:
League of Legends UK price points
- £5 – formerly 975 RP, becomes 790 RP
- £10 – formerly 2075 RP, becomes 1650 RP
- £15 – new level, becomes 2525 RP
- £20 – formerly 4200 RP, becomes 3350 RP
- £35 – formerly 7450 RP, becomes 5950 RP
- £50 – formerly 10700 RP, becomes 8600 RP
Given how deeply and vigorously we’re currently being screwed for graphics cards and other PC hardware versus American RRPs, it’s not unexpected to see this sort of impact in the software space. In some respects, we’re surprised it took this long – at least, for someone to out-and-out admit it like Riot – but expect more price rises of this type in the future.
These changes will be implemented at 23:59 BST on July 25, 2017, to effectively take effect on the morning of July 26, 2o17.
