Popular MOBA League of Legends During the last 24 hours, it was briefly unplayable because the game's digital license had expired.
The game's digital certificate, which verifies the authenticity of the program for a specified period of time, was valid from January 7, 2016 to January 4, 2026. Thus, when clocks around the world changed to Sunday, the certificate was revoked and the game became undownloadable.
However, some players have discovered a clever workaround. By turning back the system clock before it expires, League of Legends can be tricked into working again. This trick could have broken other apps, but was nonetheless a lifesaver for hardcore LoL fanatics.
At the time of writing, this issue has thankfully been resolved, although it is a rather amusing example of how digital house of cards services tend to be. A Digicert survey conducted last year found that nearly half of the companies surveyed experienced business disruptions due to digital certificates expiring.. If you are a Steam Deck user, The “Device not supported” error last year was also caused by a digital certificate error. This is a common problem.
League of Legends itself is on the verge of a major overhauland a completely new version of the game should be released sometime in 2027. More information about this will be revealed in the next month or so, but given the scope of these changes, it's probably a good idea to have a new set of certificates ready. The game also features a new seasonal structure to keep things fresh for regular players.
This period of renaissance for League of Legends comes after a difficult period. as Riot Games endures two waves of layoffs in 2024insisting it was a “necessity”, saying his costs had “increased to the point where they were unsustainable… [leaving] there is no room for experimentation or failure.”
