Riot Sydney

Riot Sydney (formerly BigWorld Technology and Wargaming Sydney) is an Australian software company, formed in 2002 by John De Margheriti. It was the developer of BigWorld, a middleware development tool suite for creating massively multiplayer online games (MMO) and virtual worlds. It was the first company that developed a middleware platform for the MMO market. In 2007, BigWorld was recognised by the UK's Develop magazine as an industry leader.^[1]

Riot Sydney

Formerly	BigWorld Technology (2002-2012) Wargaming Sydney (2012-2022)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	2002; 23 years ago (2002)
Headquarters	Sydney, Australia
Key people	Steve Wang (CEO) Simon Hayes (CTO)
Number of employees	~65 (2013)
Parent	Wargaming (2012-2022) Riot Games (2022-present)

On 7 August 2012, Wargaming — which had used BigWorld as part of the infrastructure for games such as World of Tanks — acquired BigWorld Technology for $45 million. Wargaming stated that it would continue to license and support BigWorld, and foresaw the possibility that it could offer its technologies with BigWorld for third-party licensors.^[2][3] The studio was operated as Wargaming Sydney. On 17 October 2022, Wargaming sold the studio to Riot Games for an undisclosed amount, renaming it to Riot Sydney; the sale excluded the BigWorld technology itself and the studio's publishing arm, which will be retained by Wargaming.^[4]

Awards

BigWorld Technology has received a number of business and technology innovation related awards:

• 2007 Australian Export Awards – Austrade Arts, Entertainment & Design Award Finalist^[5]
• 2007 Finalist of Australian Technology Showcase Patrons Awards^[5]
• 2006 Cool Company Awards^[5][6]
• 2006 Finalist of the Secrets of Australian IT Innovation competition, Arts and Entertainment category^[5][7]
• 2005 Winner ACT Chief Minister's Export Award in Art and Entertainment Award^[5][8]
• 2005 Australian Game Developer Awards – Award for Outstanding Innovation^[9]
• 2005 Sumea Awards for Best Engine Technology^[5]
• Secrets of Australian IT Innovation 2005 Winner – 2nd Prize in Entertainment Category^[5]
• 2003 Winner ACT Chief Ministers Export Award in the Arts and Entertainment^[5]
• 2003 Winner of the Secrets of Australian IT Innovation competition in the Arts and entertainment category^[5]
• 2003 Australian Game Developers Awards – Award for Outstanding Innovation^[5]
• 2003 National Finalist of the Austrade Australian Export Award – Arts and Entertainment^[5]
• 2003 National Winner in the Panasonic Australia Business Award Category of the Telstra and Australian Government Small Business Awards^[5]
• 2002 National Finalist of the Austrade Australian Export Award – Arts and Entertainment^[5]
• 2002 Winner ACT Chief Ministers Export Award in the Arts and Entertainment^[5]
• 2002 Australian Winner of The Asia Pacific ICT Award (APICTA), Creative Digital Industries category^[5]