To announce the arrival of its PC and mobile game titles to Xbox Game Pass, Riot Games collaborated with creative production company We Are Royale (WAR) on an animated spot that mixes and matches Riot's most popular characters.

Titles now available on Xbox Game Pass include Valorant, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra. As the spot informs them, players can unlock premium rewards and member-only benefits when they link their Riot and Game Pass accounts. 

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To create the spot, WAR combined original 3D animations, game footage and moving typography to establish the visual language. Conceptually, the narrative is built around five different cave scenes — each featuring a character sculpture specific to the Riot properties now available on Game Pass. Easter eggs, branded color palettes, and other visual elements unique to each game and familiar to fans are peppered throughout. 

WAR backlit the character sculptures with a geometric backdrop to segment the game footage, cinematics and messaging. The team developed the textures and lighting to detailed scenes that strike a balance between the footage and sculptures. Green light emanates from cracks in the sculptures and environments.

“The goal of this piece was to create a fun and direct link for players to understand all the benefits they get when linking their Riot accounts to Game Pass, and we felt that building the narrative around key characters from these games was the best approach,” said Jason Cook, executive creative director at WAR in a statement. “We teased out the character sculptures in close-ups, then revealed them all in a match-cut sequence at the end of the film.”

WAR used bold typography to highlight the perks of signing up, experimenting with different fonts and motion treatments. The end of the spot reveals both logos, which look to be built into the rock and unified with a neon light treatment. 

“This partnership provides great value for both Riot and Xbox communities, so it was a big deal for us, naturally,”  said Cook. “The team at Riot was great to work with as always. They were all hands-on in helping us push the creative as far as we could take it.”