First League of Legends has been live for the past several months. What can you tell us about how many players have signed on to play the game and about how many play at one time?

We are very excited to say that we recently surpassed 2.5 million registered accounts and that that number continues to grow at a very rapid pace. We have also opened an office in Dublin to support our rapid growth in Europe and to directly publish League of Legends in the region. As we get ready to expand into China, Southeast Asia and Korea, we expect those numbers to grow exponentially.

We can't say exactly what our concurrent user numbers are, but we can say that our CCU is comparable to some of the heavy hitters out there. We will be sharing details on this at a later date, but some other data that we can share is that our users spend more than 15 million hours a month in the game and if you look at some of the online game popularity trackers out there (such as Xfire & Raptr), you'll see that we are in the top five most-played computer games.

The game was originally supposed to be a fairly standard retail game but Riot Games made the decision to make the game free to play with microtransactions. Can you give us an idea of how that business model has worked for you?

When we announced the model, the assumption that this was a change of direction for us was not accurate. League of Legends was always designed to be a virtual goods-based game. While we cannot disclose specific financial information at this time, we can say that we are happy with the pricing structure of the game and most importantly, our users love it. We've been able to grow our team by hiring more than 30 new developers over the last six months. Our growth isn't slowing.

While most North American and European publishers continue to prioritize a packaged goods model, we really believe the "games-as-service" model is the future of games and offers major global opportunities. We are excited about our market-leading position in this space and believe that we are still just getting started.

What's been the most surprising thing that has happened in the game's development since its launch last October?

We have been very pleased with the overwhelming fan response. Players have continued to be interested and enthusiastic about League of Legends and have helped us to make it one of the most popular PC games. I'm convinced that has played a large role in securing the critical acclaim and awards that League of Legends has won. We've seen interest continue to grow, while most video games experience the opposite effect after they launch.

The game uses the design formula that has worked so well in Defense of the Ancients. Do you feel League of Legends has kept that formula intact while also introducing its new elements?

One of our primary goals with League of Legends was to capture the "feel" and much of the core gameplay experience that was pioneered in DotA, while pushing the envelope and really trying to innovate to drive the genre forward. Everything we've introduced in the game, from the Summoner system, unique Champions, robust matchmaking to new maps, has been in pursuit of those goals. We think we've done a pretty good job of expanding the genre while retaining our soul. We also feel like we're just getting started and there are a lot of exciting things in our development pipeline.
The development team has been releasing new champion units in the game on a regular basis. How hard is it to introduce these units and keep the game balanced?

It's a tough job but we have an amazing design team that is up to the task, as you can see by playing any of our Champions. It can take several months to create a new Champion and a large portion of that time is spent on making sure they are balanced. And, even after the Champion has launched, we aren't done working on them. As we add more Champions, maps and game modes, we spend a lot of time going back and making sure that all Champions are viable, evenly matched and fun to play.

And, as you know, we highly value feedback from the Community – that's why we allow them to give us their thoughts in the Test Realm before we launch each Champion and why we make changes even after they are added to the game. The Community is a very valuable part to the design process and another reason why we can continually come out with cool new characters.

What can you tell us about future update plans for the game? Will there be new champions, maps and gameplay modes?

We are about to release Season One, the biggest update to the game to date, which will introduce a host of new features, an entirely new look for PvP.net and new gameplay modes. Players can definitely expect to see more Champions and maps further down the line. We have more planned, but it's a little early to talk about it. But I do want you to know that our team is completely focused on League of Legends right now and ensuring that the content is always fresh, fun and unique. So you can expect to see high-quality content updates for years to come.

Will any mod tools be released for the game at some point?

We don't have any immediate plans for releasing mod tools, but we've had some internal discussions about it. Again, we can't ignore our mod roots and we know our Community has some amazing ideas so it's possible that we'll release some tools down the road.

You will soon release a Mac port of the game. How did that come about and do you think it will help expand League of Legends' fan base?

As League of Legends grew in popularity, it made more and more sense for us to add support for the Mac and have their players join the growing pool of League of Legends fans. We definitely think the Mac version of the game will help expand the player base. There are millions of gamers around the world that are playing high-quality, triple-A titles on Mac computers and those numbers are continuing to rise. We wanted to give those dedicated Mac gamers the opportunity to play our game too, especially since Season One is coming up in the next few months. Mac fans will get content updates at the same time as PC players and be able to play with their friends on the PC.

What will make Season One of League of Legends different from the pre-season that's been currently running?

Season One is the kick-off of competitive League of Legends play. Since launching the game, League of Legends has been in "pre-season," a time where players could learn the intricacies of the game, build up their accounts and establish relationships with other players and form teams. Season One will take the game to the next level of competitive play with the introduction of new game features such as ranked games, draft mode and ladders – features essential for a high level of competitive play. Riot Games will also be running and supporting numerous leagues, tournaments and other competitive events.

Riot Games is still hiring people. Are the positions for working at League of Legends or for another unnamed game that Riot Games has in the works?

As I mentioned earlier we are almost completely dedicated to League of Legends, making sure that we have regular updates and that our players experience the best quality game they possibly can. Because of that, everyone we hire will be working on League of Legends. We are working on some other projects, but those are a little further on the horizon and we don't have anything specific to announce at this time.

Finally is there anything else you wish to say about League of Legends and its future?

First, I'd like to thank all our fans for their continued support as well as the enthusiasm they have shown regarding Season One. It's been great to see this level of excitement from fans and new players around the biggest update we've made to League of Legends. I just want to tell them it's much appreciated and they can expect to see even more amazing updates in the very near future.