Raid: Shadow Legends is the next game to get an anime adaption
Infamous mobile game Raid: Shadow Legends, which you’ll know from its sponsorship of literally anything you’ve ever watched on the internet, is getting the animation series treatment. Following popular video games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, and Cyberpunk 2077, Raid: Shadow Legends is going to be adapted as an animated show called Raid: Call of the Arbiter.
The limited series will span ten episodes and be released weekly on YouTube, starting on May 18, 2023, with the premiere. The official description for Call of the Arbiter's story reads:
“An ancient guardian seeks to summon a band of unlikely champions to return her to their world. They will be challenged to set aside grievances, join forces, and light a spark that will cast down the darkness. The Arbiter calls. Will they answer?”
Plarium, the developer of Raid: Shadow Legends, has also unveiled a first look at the show with an official teaser:
Eric Rollman, formerly the president of Marvel Television and Animation, is the show’s producer, while Jay Oliva, CEO of Lex + Otis, acts as the showrunner. Oliva was the director of the 2012 animation movie Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and worked on several DC and Marvel films as a storyboard artist.
“There’s been a significant demand from the players who want to know more about the story, more about the characters, more about the experiences,” Michael Lang, the CEO of Plarium’s parent company Pixel United stated towards The Hollywood Reporter. Lang said that Plarium was not just following the latest trend: “It was really more coming out of our players and wanting to extend the storyline of what this game represents.”
Raid: Shadow Legends is a free-to-play fantasy RPG containing an aggressive gacha system that motivates players to spend real money to achieve progress. It’s been available on Android and iOS since 2018 as well as PC since 2020. It reached infamy on the internet by sponsoring just about any content creator, leading to the game becoming the star of countless memes.
This aggressive ad strategy seems to have worked out for the title, though, as the game was making $1 billion in lifetime revenue after three years. Australian gambling company Aristocrat Leisure, which is behind Plarium, lists Raid: Shadow Legends as one of its most profitable enterprises.
