Less than a year after its release, the studio is pulling the plug on the fighting game. The servers will remain online, but there will be no new content starting in December.
Riot Games is ending active development of 2XKO in December. The free-to-play fighting game was only released in its final version in January. According to the studio, they no longer see a “path to profitability.”
So that’s it for 2XKO
The studio announced this decision on social media and ina detailed blog post. The final patch for the game will be released as early as October. Riot will refund all in-game purchases made before August 20 by November. The servers will remain online until further notice.
All previously announced major updates will still make it into the game. This includes the new champions Lux and Samira. As soon as development stops, the developers will unlock all champions for you. You’ll still be able to purchase a massive bundle containing nearly all of the game’s cosmetic items. The price for this bundle is 39.99 euros. In addition, Riot is closing the ranked lobbies. This means that skill-based casual matchmaking will remain your only public online option.
In a blog post titled “What Was Riot’s Goal with 2XKO?”, the developers explain their original intentions. At the start of development, they wanted to tackle major issues within the genre. The post states: “While the genre has evolved significantly over the past decade or so, we believe that 2XKO has delivered on many of those promises.”
Despite these efforts, it seems not enough people stuck with the game. The post elaborates: “Even within the genre, hardcore tag-fighter players loved 2XKO. Most other fighting game fans, however, found little reason to stick with it long-term.”
Riot also cites the specific reasons for the shutdown. The game’s performance—that is, revenue, player retention, and engagement—was reportedly “only a fraction” of what would be necessary for profitable operation. According to the blog post, this circumstance simply makes further active development “impossible.”
So far, Riot Games has not announced any layoffs for the 2XKO development team. Back in February, Riot cut about half of the team’s positions—less than 30 days after the game’s release. Many of these developers were placed in other roles at Riot, while others had to leave the company.
Work on the game began nearly ten years ago. At that time, the title was launched under the codename Project L, when Tom and Tony Cannon joined Riot Games from Radiant Entertainment.& nbsp;The studio officially unveiled the game in 2019.Six years later, it was finally released andreceived many positive reviews.
This is sad news. 2XKO had tremendous potential. The idea of bringing casual players on board through duo play was also commendable. This marks the second major free-to-play fighting game to shut down—following Warner Bros.’ MultiVersus. Neither title managed to attract a large enough audience. This inevitably raises the question of whether this business model can even work in a genre that, aside from the very big brands, is increasingly becoming a niche market.
