MANILA - Starting 2023, Riot Games will be taking over the publishing of PC game League of Legends, the global gaming company announced Friday, ending more than a decade of Garena's publishing rights on the hit title.

Aside from their flagship PC game, Riot Games will also self-publish Teamfight Tactics. This means Riot will put out new servers for LoL and TFT. Garena servers will end operations by January of next year.

Since its launch in 2010, League of Legends has been published by Garena. Riot has gone on to self-publish its emerging titles such as Valorant, the game's mobile iteration, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and Legends of Runeterra.

The global gaming company, which is currently setting up a local office in the Philippines, said it was the "right time" to retake the publishing rights of both gaming titles.

"We are grateful for Garena’s partnership and publishing support over the past decade. Their efforts have built an incredible community of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics players across Southeast Asia, and the games’ success would have been impossible without them," Riot Asia-Pacific director Alex Kraynov said.

The publishing takeover is part of their plans to establish markets in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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"Riot is in the midst of establishing local offices in key markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, to deepen its native presence and better provide hyper-localization to players in-market," Riot added.

Players may link their existing accounts to Riot's clients starting from November 18, Riot said.

"After players kick off the account linking process in November they can continue to play League via the Garena client until early January 2023. However, starting in January, Riot servers will open and all players can access League on the Riot multi-game client. Once players confirm their instructions and login for the first time via the Riot multi-game client in January, their game history will be fully migrated. Confirmed relaunch dates will be announced at a later date," Riot said in a press release.