2XKO hit with layoffs by Riot Games after low-key launch

Fighting game was in development for a decade, but has underperformed

Riot Games has cut the development team of its free-to-play fighting game 2XKO by half, laying off around 80 staff, according to a report by Game Developer. In an official statement, executive producer Tom Cannon said that the game had not reached enough players.

2XKO, which is set within the League of Legends universe and shares characters with Riot’s massive MOBA, was a passion project at Riot that went through an epic, 10-year development, including multiple reboots. The cuts come just three weeks after its Jan. 20 launch.

“I want you to know that decision wasn’t made lightly,” Cannon said. “As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO. The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.”

Cannon said that a “smaller, focused team” would continue to make “key improvements” to the game, and support tournament organizers and the 2026 Competitive Series.

“I want to be clear about something that matters deeply to me,” Cannon said. “The people who helped ship 2XKO poured years of creativity, care, and belief into this game. Taking creative risks like this is hard, and the work they did is real and meaningful.”

“Ten years on 2XKO, 12 at Riot and I got laid off with 30min notice lol,” designer and producer Patrick Miller posted on BlueSky. “Gonna take some time.”

The layoffs illustrate the immense difficulty of breaking into fighting games, even for a developer with Riot’s huge resources and the expertise of the 2XKO team (Cannon, with his brother Tony, founded Evo, the dominant esports tournament for fighting games). Fighting games have a passionate following, and major titles like Tekken, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat sell well. But the subculture surrounding them is niche and fiercely defensive, and the genre has been dominated for decades by a tiny handful of specialist developers like Capcom, Bandai Namco, Arc System Works, and NetherRealm.

Riot acquired the Cannons’ studio Radiant Entertainment in 2016, and first unveiled its LoL-themed fighting game in 2019. Riot spent years iterating on the game’s look and design before 2XKO launched, but it still came under fire from fighting game fans for its arcane mechanics and limited roster of characters.

Riot has long struggled to break out of its MOBA lane, or to translate League of Legends’ popularity into different genres. Some spinoffs like auto-battler Teamfight Tactics and shooter Valorant have worked to a greater or lesser degree, but several other projects have been canceled, have languished in development hell, or both. Riot announced an MMO set in the LoL universe in 2020, after many years of rumored work, but then “reset” the project in 2024. In 2020, Riot acquired Minecraft competitor Hytale, before canceling it in 2025 after 10 years of development. Hytale was bought back by its original developers and released in early access in January.

At least 2XKO still exists, and there is still a (much smaller) team working on it at Riot. The studio’s quest to expand its repertoire continues.