Riot tweaks regional virtual currency valuations
League of Legends giant Riot Games has made some changes to the valuation of virtual currency across its titles.
In a post on its website, the company said that it was making these tweaks due to shifts in global economics and also to stop bad actors taking advantage of lower pricing in other regions via methods such as VPNs. These changes are coming into effect across League of Legends, Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift on September 18th.
The price changes vary across different games and different regions. The country that is seeing the biggest change is Ukraine; the wartorn region is seeing virtual currency cost increase by 76 per cent in Wild Rift, 73 per cent in League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, 66 per cent in Valorant and 64 per cent in Legends of Runeterra.
It's not all increases though; many South American countries, Mexico and India are seeing decreases in pricing.
The USA and Canada are not impacted at all by these changes.
"With exchange rates always fluctuating, it’s important to try to balance prices across regions," Riot wrote.
"When prices vary too widely, it opens the door for third parties to exploit these differences, using methods like VPNs and server transfers to buy currency at lower prices in one region and sell it for profit in another. In some regions, a significant portion — or even a majority — of currency purchases are made by these third parties or players from outside the region.
"We know that these changes are especially tough for players in regions with the largest increases, and we’re not thrilled about it either. The reality is that these adjustments are necessary to combat the manipulation we’re seeing in the system and to ensure that everyone is playing on a level field. Our hope is that by balancing currency values more consistently across regions, we can reduce the opportunities for exploitation and maintain fairness for everyone."
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