Riot Games shuts down active development of fighting game 2XKO in December

The announcement clarifies that while active development is winding down, Riot Games intends to continue supporting the existing community through December. This includes releasing content updates, feature improvements, and introducing two new champions before the project enters its final phase. Following these updates, the studio plans to deliver a final bug-fix patch to ensure stability for remaining players.

Crucially, Riot Games will not be shutting down the game entirely. Online servers will remain active to support multiplayer matches for the foreseeable future, and offline play modes are unaffected. In a significant move to honor the player base that invested in the title, Riot is unlocking all champions and bundling most cosmetic items. Furthermore, any money spent on the game on or before August 20 will be fully refunded.

"Over the last few months, we've been monitoring 2XKO's trajectory closely," Riot stated in their announcement. "While a lot of you jumped in to try the game and there's an incredible community that plays every day, we haven't seen enough players stick with the game to get to a path toward sustainability." The studio emphasized that their current goal is to "do right by the players" who have supported the project.

The business reality behind the decision was stark. Although Riot hoped that launching the title as free-to-play would make the fighting game genre more accessible, the model required a minimum player base to be viable. While reception from die-hard tag fighter players was positive, most other fighting game enthusiasts struggled to find reasons to stay with the title. Consequently, the project costs the studio substantially more to operate than it currently brings in.

When evaluating options to move forward, Riot considered reducing team size, adjusting development schedules, and changing the business model. Ultimately, they concluded that sunsetting active development was the best route. This decision follows a difficult period for the project, including layoffs of roughly 80 employees from the 2XKO team in February and reported staff reductions at co-developer Demiurge Studios last year.

"Looking to the future, you can count on Riot to keep exploring new genres and ways to bring players together," the announcement concludes. For now, the focus is on leaving 2XKO in a great spot before the team returns to R&D to learn from the experience and prepare for their next attempt at a new genre.