Riot Games co-founder Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill spoke on the Lemonade Stand podcast about the challenges facing the fighting game 2XKO. According to him, to justify its initial cost structure and maintain a live-service model, the game required an audience in the high hundreds of thousands or even millions of active players. The planned ongoing content release format proved far too expensive for the existing player base.
Development Challenges and Missed Timing The concept of 2XKO traces back to the acquisition of Radiant Entertainment in 2015 and a collaboration with the Cannon brothers. The vision was to combine the simplified controls and mechanical depth of Rising Thunder with characters from League of Legends. However, the project faced internal instability during development: leadership changes led to managerial divisions regarding the pace of development and the game's final vision. An additional blow came with the release of Street Fighter 6 in June 2023, which, according to Merrill, closed the time window in which 2XKO could have made its largest market impact.
Strategy Pivot and Project Sunset Despite establishing the 2XKO Competitive Series esports ecosystem—culminating in a $75,000 major at EVO—the game failed to attract enough players to sustain its live service. As a result, Riot Games decided to pivot away from ongoing support:
- In August 2026, the company confirmed that active development of 2XKO will end in December 2026.
- The project is being transitioned into a finished "boxed" product: players will receive the in-game content, and refunds will be provided.
The outcome for 2XKO highlights the strict financial demands major publishers place on live-service titles. Even a high-quality fighting game backed by a major company and a passionate competitive community can prove unsustainable if its audience size does not match the scale of a high-cost, long-term support model.
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