The next patches are going to be a little bigger than usual

Most players rarely take note of how big each League of Legends patch is, but for the few who do, Riot has given them a little bit of advanced warning that the next several patches are going to have a bigger file size than they might be used to.

According to Riot’s announcement post, the reason behind these increased patch sizes is actually two different projects that are happening simultaneously inside of Riot. The first, related to Patch 8.5, is an audio engine overhaul that requires just about every sound file to be replaced into the game. Don’t worry, none of the sounds you know are changing, just getting put back after a behind the scenes upgrade.

The second project related to patches comes to us courtesy of the Content Efficiency team. It’s extremely rare that we players hear from this team, and that’s exactly the way it should be. This team manages all of the data in the game as well as the creative tools Riot use to make it. Without getting too far into the weeds, their current project involves swapping file types on just about piece of data in the game, to free up resources for more complicated champions and more intricately designed skins. But all those changes are going to take quite a few patches to finish completely.

The audio engine upgrades are slated for release with 8.5 later this week, while the file migration is going to be covered in patches 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, and maybe even 8.10. While these bigger patches may be slightly annoying for some players over the next several months, their effects will help Riot deliver more interesting and expansive content in ways that players wouldn’t ever expect.