It was in June of this year that Microsoft and Riot Games announced a surprise partnership to bring the latter's biggest free-to-play games, complete with premium unlocks, to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. While it has taken half a year, the benefits are finally starting to go live on December 12.
Riot's smash hit MOBA League of Legends, competitive FPS Valorant, collectible card game Legends of Runeterra, and the auto battler Teamfight Tactics are what's being offered, with major boons like complete character unlocks, to all Game Pass members on that date. Benefits for players of mobile entry League of Legends: Wild Rift are being worked on too, but those will arrive in January.
Here's a breakdown of what all Xbox and PC Game Pass subscribers will gain:
Valorant
- All current Agents
- Access to every new Agent as soon as they’re released
- 20% Match XP boost given to Battle Pass, Event Pass, and active Agent Contract progress
League of Legends
- All 160+ champions
- Access to every new champion as soon as they’re released
- 20% XP boost
Legends of Runeterra
- All cards in Foundations Set
Teamfight Tactics
- 1-Star Rare Little Legend Tacticians
- 4 Arena Skins available until April 2023, and 1 Arena Skin that’s on a monthly rotation thereafter
League of Legends: Wild Rift (coming in January) unlocked benefits include:
- All 80+ champions
- Day-one access to every new champion as they’re released
- 20% XP boost
Once the feature is live, all Game Pass subscribers that link their Xbox accounts with a Riot account will unlock all that's mentioned above for no extra cost. The account linking can be accomplished right now. Those who do the linking process before January 1, 2023, will also receive additional cosmetic goodies from Riot across all its titles.
Considering none of Riot's products are currently available on Xbox consoles, this offer of largely circumventing the free-to-play grind is valuable only to PC and mobile players. However, with the two companies now working closely together, we may start seeing console ports of these hugely popular titles sooner than later.
