Source: Fabrice Condominas (@Faburisu) on X. Verified against multiple sources; datamines and reports are labelled as such, not stated as fact.
What Happened
On July 8, 2026, Fabrice Condominas (@Faburisu), executive producer of Riot's unannounced MMO, posted a note on X reacting to the week's wave of games-industry layoffs. It was less a condolence post than a statement of intent: he argued that players everywhere still want 'to be immersed in worlds that make them feel whole and alive...
play, mastery, belonging,' that 'every game that matters in the coming years will still be made by' the designers, artists and engineers being cut, and signed off with 'Hang in there, and see you in Runeterra. GG.' Hours later Orlando Salvatore (@KirbyAu), senior engineering manager on the League MMO, posted a long personal reflection endorsing him, saying he's 'proud to be on a team that is dedicated to delivering the dream of truly being in and part of Runeterra' and quoting Condominas: 'we don't make games because we can, but because we have to.' Two days earlier the MMO's creative-management director Alex Lehmann (@RiotCaptainLx) had quote-tweeted the Microsoft/Xbox layoffs and urged affected developers to check Riot's open roles.
The Details
- Fabrice Condominas (@Faburisu) is executive producer of Riot's unannounced Runeterra MMO (since the March 2024 reset; ex-BioWare, Mass Effect).
- His July 8, 2026 note pulled 12,090 views and 117 likes and closed: 'Hang in there, and see you in Runeterra. GG.'
- Key line: players want 'to be immersed in worlds that make them feel whole and alive. They want play, mastery, belonging.'
- Orlando Salvatore (@KirbyAu), senior engineering manager on the League MMO, endorsed the note July 8 and referenced the goal of 'truly being in and part of Runeterra.'
- Alex Lehmann (@RiotCaptainLx), director of creative management on Riot's MMO R&D, posted July 6 urging laid-off devs to check Riot's job openings, quoting the Xbox layoffs news.
- The posts landed the same week Microsoft cut ~4,800 jobs (about 1,600 at Xbox) and moved to sell or spin off five studios.
What This Means for the Riot MMO
This is the Riot MMO's leadership speaking on the record about the project as a group, which almost never happens since the team went dark after the March 2024 reset. Condominas used a brutal industry week to restate the MMO's core pitch in plain language, immersive worlds built on 'play, mastery, belonging,' and closed with 'see you in Runeterra,' phrasing that reads as confidence the game is real and coming rather than quietly shelved.
His senior engineering manager on the League MMO backed him publicly and framed the goal as 'truly being in and part of Runeterra,' one of the clearest design statements we've had post-reboot. The same week, the MMO's creative director was pointing laid-off devs at Riot's job board, so the picture is a team staffing up and building, not winding down.
- Clearest post-reboot statement of the MMO's design pitch: immersive worlds built on play, mastery and belonging.
- 'See you in Runeterra' from the EP reads as a shipping signal, not a project on ice.
- A creative-director-level recruiting push the same week suggests the MMO is still actively hiring.
- Three named leads surfacing at once (EP, senior eng manager, creative director) maps more of the team's public roster.
Your Take
Does Riot's MMO team sound like a project that's actually shipping?
Reported from Fabrice Condominas (@Faburisu) on X and corroborating coverage. The MMO read is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.
