Brexit Britain: League of Legends in-game currency gets UK price hike

League of Legends players in the UK will soon have to pay more for their Riot Points as a result of Brexit. 

Developer Riot Games yesterday revealed it's been forced to raise the price by 20 percent due to Britain's decision to leave the European Union. 

That leave vote triggered a drop in the value of the pound, and the currency has struggled to recover in the year since the EU Referendum on June 23, 2016. 

For those who aren't familiar with League, Riot Points are the MOBA's in-game currency, and can be used to purchase champions, skins, and other digital paraphernalia. 

Explaining the decision on the League forum, 'Riot Benshirro,' who leads the publishing efforts at Riot's Dublin office, said the decision wasn't made last summer because the studio wanted to see if the pound would recover in the long-term. 

"Last June, the UK voted to leave the European Union, triggering a drop in the value of the pound relative to other global currencies, particularly the U.S. dollar," reads the post. 

"This change meant that while UK players were spending the same number of pounds on RP as before, players elsewhere in the world were paying a lot more in comparison.

"Like a lot of companies who sell digital content, we monitored the situation closely over several months to see whether the pound would recover, but it's been over a year now and we feel we've reached the point where a price change is necessary to restore parity."

The 20 percent price hike will be a one-time change designed to restore the balance in Riot Point pricing around the world. Existing purchases won't be affected, and Riot will be keeping the old (current) RP prices until July 25 -- so UK players might want to get their shopping done before then. 

The change will effectively mean that whenever a player in the UK buys Riot Points after July 25, they'll receive roughly the same amount as they would if they exchanged their pounds into dollars and bought their Points in North America. 

To find out more about the changes, head on over to the official League of Legends discussion board.