2XKO Lays Off A Large Chunk of Employees Just Three Weeks After Launch

Riot Games' anticipated fighting title was announced back during the 10-year anniversary of League of Legends. At the time, we got a brief look at what players could expect, showcasing characters like Ahri and Darius fighting in an early state of the game.

It was a long time waiting afterwards, with rumours of cancellation and more hitting 2XKO due to the nearly six-year silence following the game. Still, it was last year that the fighter set in Runeterra launched, giving players all around the world to experience a free-to-play fighter attempting to compete against the likes of Street Fighter and TEKKEN.

Last year in October, the game went into its early access period, focusing on bringing the experience to PC gamers first, with a promise of console launch a bit down the line. With the release of the first Season, introducing Caitlyn to the roster of characters, the console launch came to be.

This is where, unfortunately, 2XKO was hit with a large number of layoffs. In a news update coming from the executive producer for the fighting game named "An Update on 2XKO", Tom Cannon spoke about the layoffs. This covers a bit of the what, why, and the future, though there is no exact number detailing how many developers were actually affected.

The open letter to players details that the title didn't hit the momentum it needed to sustain the team that it had going for an extended period. By downsizing and bringing the development team down, Riot Games hopes to be able to make 2XKO sustainable and continue introducing content for players to enjoy, with the 2026 Competitive Series plans remaining unchanged.

The letter touches on how player retention has been a struggle for the fighting game, as patterns started to emerge with the console launch and how players were engaging with the experience. While it's found a passionate core audience, it's struggled to keep itself accessible to casual players who would make the experience more sustainable.

Speculation online has blamed several different factors for 2XKO's failure. Some users online have claimed that Riot Games' marketing efforts have always been lacklustre, with many players unaware of the game's launch (a pattern we saw years prior with Legends of Runeterra, even years after its launch).

Others have blamed the limited roster, where, from 170 characters, fewer than 10% of them were translated to the fighting game (only bolstering 12 champions at the time of writing). As 2XKO is a tag-fighting title, a small roster means that a lot of characters appear prominently throughout the meta, and combinations are limited.

Regardless of the reason, 2XKO has seen a massive downsizing to its overall development team, which might reflect on the planned seasonal content launch. The signature Riot Games layoff package is being offered by affected employees, where they'll be offered other jobs within Riot Games if available, and if not, then six months of notice pay and severance to assist in the transition.