After winning big at the 49th Annie Awards the day before yesterday, Fortiche Productions is now pushing ahead stronger than ever, with the upcoming second season of Arcane, after Riot Games closes a huge equity investment in the company.
Per Deadline, the League of Legends developer has used this opportunity to deepen its ties with Fortiche, who have been their longtime collaborator on the MOBA game’s music videos and cinematics even before Arcane came along. This investment allows Riot to hold a non-controlling stake in Fortiche, while also helping their efforts forward with the company’s staggering $20+ billion pool of resources.
Fortiche’s co-founders released a statement today regarding this investment deal, which reads as follows:
“The various collaborations with Riot Games, and especially Arcane, have made Fortiche Production a new major player on the international animation scene. Riot Games, by trusting us, has given us the means to achieve our common ambitions and has shown that it is possible to offer new content that can reach a large audience. In 2023, we will celebrate 10 years of collaboration: there is no better way to symbolize the trust and ambitions of our two companies than this association!”
This can hopefully allow Fortiche to speed up the development of the highly-anticipated next chapter in the story of Vi and Jinx in Arcane. Because as successful and acclaimed as the animated adaptation turned out to be, I don’t suppose that most fans would care much about waiting another six years for Fortiche and Riot to prepare the forthcoming 9-hour run, since it took them that long to finish work on season one.
In all fairness, though, conceiving a project takes much more effort than continuing down an established line. That’s particularly true of animation, where every tiny asset in the world takes a lot of imagining and labor to bring to life, especially for Arcane which boasts a unique and novel animation style.
As fans of this fictional world, we can’t wait to see what Riot and Fortiche will have in store for fans next.