Riot Games has reorganized its leadership in its esports and entertainment segments.
Current esports president John Needham has been named president of publishing and esports, and will “create new integrated experiences” that combine its esports, music and creative publishing sectors.
Needham was hired as CEO of Europe in 2017 and has held a number of senior roles since. Prior to Riot, he was European Publishing Director at Lionhead and CEO of Cryptic Studios.
Two new studios have been created to handle Riot’s TV development and film projects, including an animation studio led by creative director Christian Linke and a live-action studio led by chief content officer Brian Wright.
Linke joined Riot in 2010 as a data analyst before becoming a composer for League of Legends in 2011 and then the creator and showrunner of Arcane in 2015.
Wright was named chief content officer in 2021 after seven years at Netflix as vice president of family content.
“Over the past year, we've been working to refocus our organization and structure to serve players in a more coordinated way,” said Riot CEO Dylan Jadeja. “John, Christian, and Brian are incredible leaders who care deeply about players.
“I have no doubt that, together with our game development teams, they will dream up even more memorable and defining moments that players can be proud of.”