Riot Games is “regretfully” canceling the League of Legends Mac beta client developed in partnership with TransGaming, citing issues with maintaining consistent parity between Mac and Windows PC versions in a rapid update cycle.
Announced last year, League of Legends is regarded as a DOTA clone - an action RTS video game which challenges rival teams to destroy the opponent’s Nexus, or have them surrender.League of Legends is a session-based game in which matchmaking occurs based on the average Elo ratings of each individual players, with slight proprietary adjustments.
The game boasts five different modes: tutorial, custom, Co-Op vs. AI, normal and ranked.
In a forum post, the folks at Riot Games explain their decision to cut short the life of the proposed Mac client, saying, “Over the past 13 months we have been working with another company on a Mac version of LoL.”
“We have been silent because both companies have been exploring every possible avenue to ensure the Mac version is up to Riot standards. So far we have been unable to ensure a consistent quality bar across platforms.”
Noting that their rapid update cycle is at the heart of the issue, the game developer announces, “We are regretfully going to shut down the Mac Beta client indefinitely starting 12:00 AM PT on September 6, 2011.”
The studio promises to “continue to investigate the opportunity to provide player access on the Mac Platform in the future” but only when that opportunity “aligns with [their] service and content update standards.”
Testers that have accessed and used the League of Legends store during the Beta can either continue to play the Windows version of the game, or ask for a full refund.
Riot will also compensate active beta participants with a code that unlocks the Champions Pack, “as a token of appreciation for the time they have dedicated to helping us evaluate the Mac client and our sincere apology for not being able to have the testing work out as originally planned,” Riot states.
Today is the last day testers can login to the Mac client and click on the Store button to get their reward.
“Rewards will be added to the accounts of verified testers by the end of September,” Riot adds.
