▲ 2XKO
Riot Games is halting new content development for its fighting game '2XKO,' which it launched with high ambitions last year, due to low popularity.
On August 20 (local time), Riot Games announced, "We have concluded that the number of 2XKO players is not sufficient to establish a foundation for continued development," adding, "We will end new development by the end of 2026."
According to Riot Games, the 2XKO servers will continue to operate beyond 2026, and two new champions along with a final bug fix patch are scheduled for release by December.
Riot Games also stated that it plans to release a bundle containing all champions unlocked immediately and most cosmetic items.
In addition, the company announced that full refunds will be issued for all payments made before August 21.
Along with the news of ending new development, Riot Games provided an unusually detailed explanation of the development intentions and the reasons for discontinuation.
Riot Games stated, "Our goal was to secure the trust of our core player base and then gradually add new features and content to grow the player count," adding, "While passionate tag-fighting game players showed great support for 2XKO, other players failed to find reasons to keep playing the game."
The company further explained, "Even when we released new content, there were no steady or noticeable changes in the game's box office trends," and "Over time, it became clear that continuing to develop the game as we have been would be impossible, with operating costs exceeding revenue."
It added, "Moving forward, we will continue to explore new genres and seek ways to bring players together."
'2XKO' is a game featuring various champions from League of Legends engaging in 2v2 tag-team fighting matches. After launching in early access in October of last year, it entered official service in January of this year.
As the box office performance of '2XKO' fell short of expectations, Riot Games carried out restructuring last February, cutting the size of the development team by about half.
(Photo courtesy of Riot Games, Yonhap News)
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