League of Legends Dev Riot Games Reveals That Hackers Stole Game Source Code; Expects Content Leaks as It Refuses to Pay Ransom

Earlier this week, League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games revealed that the studio had been hacked. At the time, the popular developer didn’t share a ton of details about it. However, the company has now confirmed the specifics of the hack.

In a long Twitter thread, Riot Games let fans knew that the hack in question was indeed a ransomware attack. The studio confirmed that the hackers had gained access to the source code of its popular titles in League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics and a legacy anticheat platform.

Riot further shared that the developers have received an email demanding ransom for the stolen files from the hackers. However, the studio has no plans to bow down to the demands of the hackers. And more importantly, the studio has no worries about player safety, as no personal data about its user base have been compromised.

Today, we received a ransom email. Needless to say, we won’t pay.

While this attack disrupted our build environment and could cause issues in the future, most importantly we remain confident that no player data or player personal information was compromised.

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— Riot Games (@riotgames) January 24, 2023

With no ransom being paid by Riot, the studio runs a risk of the hackers sharing the source code online. With the potential of important game files out on the internet, both League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics might face problems, with hackers creating new cheats that can disrupt the player experience. However, Riot has stated that the developers are assessing the situation to make sure that fixes are deployed as soon as possible if such a scenario ever arises.

The illegally obtained source code also includes a number of experimental features. While we hope some of these game modes and other changes eventually make it out to players, most of this content is in prototype and there’s no guarantee it will ever be released.

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— Riot Games (@riotgames) January 24, 2023

Developers also noted that the source code also features experimental features that may or may not release. For the time being, the studio continues to look into the situation with its “security teams and globally recognized external consultants.” Furthermore, law enforcement has also been notified about the hack as well.

Due to the attack, Riot Games has had to delay many patches for its titles. But the studio hopes to get back into groove later this week in lieu of the progress made by the developers so far.