- Primary Subject: 2XKO (Riot Games Fighting Game)
- Key Update: Riot Games has officially downsized the 2XKO development team by approximately 80 employees
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: February 10, 2026
- Quick Answer: Following a "lukewarm" launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on January 20, 2026, Executive Producer Tom Cannon confirmed the team is being reduced to a "sustainable" size. While competitive plans for 2026 remain, the game has struggled with casual player retention and monetization backlash.
2XKO, laying off a reportedly 80+ employees following a lukewarm launch that, according to Riot, didn't reach the momentum required to sustain a team of its size, is a sad thing. One that serves as a cautionary tale for fighting game developers: don't just cater to the fighting game community.
It's unclear what the future holds for the remainder of the team, but Riot seems to think the game failed to attract a bigger playerbase during its first few weeks after launch. You'd be forgiven for thinking 2XKO hasn't been out for months already, as the dreadful marketing strategy and sluggish rollout destroyed any hype for the eventual 1.0 release, a major contributor to the game's underperformance.
2XKO suffers a major identity crisis, making it impossible to recommend to people outside the FGC. At its core, it presented itself as a beginner-friendly, low-stakes fighting game that tapped into the popular well that is League of Legends as an IP: "It's got no motion inputs!" "You can play with a duo, train and learn together!" the developers quickly and repeatedly stated. A marketing ploy to attract those not familiar with the genre.
Once they got their hands on the game, these newcomers found themselves dealing with the overtly convoluted Fuse system, multiple tag mechanics, an incredibly small roster, overpriced cosmetics, and somewhat hard-to-execute combos that require surgical precision in some cases (looking at you, Caitlyn). That's all fine, every fighting game ever made will be hard for a complete beginner, no matter how much you dumb it down. The problem is how do you retain them? In the case of 2XKO, the answer was simple: you don't. Because there's nothing of value that keeps them coming back.
Take a look at Street Fighter 6. Why is it so popular? Is it because the drive system is the pinnacle of fighting game design, one that grabbed the community by its horns and hasn't let go since 2023? No, in fact, I'd argue that of the modern 2D fighting game releases, it's the game I've enjoyed the least from a gameplay perspective. It has World Tour, a massive single-player experience that, to this day, people are grinding. It has the Battle Hub, an online functional lobby system, where I've seen players with over 1,000 hours clocked in. You can get sweaty in ranked or play more casually in Extreme mode using wacky modifiers and win conditions. It's a complete package, with a great onboarding process and tools to make learning easier. It's not just a great fighting game, it's a great videogame, period.
Sure, 2XKO has a tutorial and Pulse Combos (where you mash a single button and cool stuff happens) to welcome newbies into the genre. But what about the rest of it? Where does the enjoyment come from besides trying to improve to satisfy one's own ego?
Even compared to Riot's other free-to-play offerings, 2XKO is just too barebones. Valorant has a wealth of modes available at all times, from classic ranked or unrated to Team Deathmatch, and other bite-sized experiences. Even the basically defunct Legends of Runeterra launched in a much, much better state. The digital card game had less aggressive monetization, would let you acquire new sets without feeling as grindy as getting new characters in 2XKO, and had an incredible PvE mode that eventually became the only one that keeps getting support: Path of Champions, a rogue-lite adventure that delved deep into Runeterra's regions and its lore, something solely lacking in 2XKO.
The fact that 2XKO doesn't leverage the duo's system to create some more fun, relaxed experiences is baffling, for instance. On top of that, for how small the roster is, not launching with at least an arcade mode that gives those not as familiar with the world of League of Legends a glimpse into its lore is also massively disappointing.
With such a small roster and no single-player modes, what did the marketing focus on? As mentioned, system mechanics. And as a tale as old as time, proven correct once more: system mechanics don't sell fighting games; its content, and characters do.
The cosmetics and their pricing are a whole other can of worms. Even for someone with experience dealing with inflated Valorant skin costs, they are ridiculously overpriced. I don't mind splurging some cash if I like the product I'm consuming, as I said, I've done it in Valorant but particularly Legends of Runeterra, a game so beautifully free-to-play friendly (likely to its own detriment) that buying card skins was my way of showing support to the passionate devs that tried to make it a success.
Sure, the FGC might have popped off seeing all the crazy stuff you can pull off using the Freestyle Fuse, the depth each character's move set has, and how insanely hard the combo trials are. But at the end of the day, you need to appeal to the casual audience, give them reasons to stay beyond simply dumbing down the game's execution and throwing a couple of League characters without ever really advertising it to said playerbase.
I don't want 2XKO to "fail." I still don't think it has. Yet I can't shake the feeling that, as a project, its lack of proper vision, a lackluster content offering, and absurd monetization might have sealed its fate before it even had a chance to gain its footing.
And that's it. Stick with us at Gfinityesports.com: your go-to source for all things to 2XKO.