Hot on the heels of the remarkable success of Arcane, the Netflix adaptation of League of Legends, Riot Games has been actively seeking opportunities to broaden its richly woven narrative universe through new gaming experiences. Following the release of Teamfight Tactics, an auto-battler strategy game, the company ventured into the realm of digital card games with Legends of Runeterra and introduced a mobile-console MOBA titled Wild Rift.
The latest addition to this expanding portfolio was 2XKO, a 2v2 tag-team fighter inspired by the iconic Street Fighter series. At its launch, the game garnered significant attention, buoyed by beloved characters such as Jinx, Vi, and Ekko. Available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via the Riot Games client, 2XKO initially resonated well within the fighting game community. However, its momentum has since waned.
Outrage erupts as Riot Games sunsets 2XKO
In a recent blog post, Riot Games announced that support for 2XKO will conclude in December 2026. Although servers will remain operational, a final update will introduce two new champions and address existing bugs, with any purchases made thus far set to be refunded. The developers stated, “Over the last few months, we’ve been monitoring 2XKO’s trajectory closely, and what we’ve seen is painting a clear, consistent picture: 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.”
This announcement has sparked considerable backlash within the community, with many expressing frustration at the developers’ apparent focus on immediate profitability. Popular content creator Ludwig Ahgren remarked, “Bro Riot is inane. It feels like Mark Marrell has the company in a chokehold where if their game doesn’t make 1 billion dollars instantly he shuts it down. No community building, no thought of making a beautiful game just pure profit or die.”
Another user echoed this sentiment, stating, “Riot really needs to stop cancelling everything that isn’t as big as LoL. You’re never gonna reach that level of success again. It’s unrealistic to shit-can everything (and everyone) that doesn’t reach that bar. Fools.” A third comment poignantly noted, “If my mom gave up on me when I was 1 years old, I would have never learned to read. Or walk. Or talk. Just something you should think about.” The swift cancellation of 2XKO has left a bitter taste, particularly given the immense popularity of the League of Legends universe, raising concerns about the future of other projects.
League of Legends’ upcoming MMORPG could face a familiar fate
Riot Games has a history of discontinuing projects, with 2XKO now joining the ranks of other cancelled titles such as the sandbox RPG Hytale and ‘Project F’, which aimed to be a more expansive RPG within the League of Legends universe. The final spin-off currently in development is a highly anticipated MMORPG, also set in the LoL universe. After being rebooted in 2024, this Runeterra-based game is slated for release in 2028, but the underwhelming performance of previous spin-offs has led to fears that it may share a similar fate.
Additionally, the community is still awaiting the next installment of Arcane. While Riot has assured fans that more stories featuring different characters are on the horizon, the anticipation continues to build with no concrete updates. Despite League of Legends and VALORANT standing tall as two of the most prominent live-service competitive titles globally, the fate of their spin-offs remains uncertain, echoing a troubling trend within the company.
