What Riot announced
Riot Games said it will end active development on 2XKO, its free-to-play League of Legends tag-team fighting game, in December, roughly eleven months after the title's full release in January 2026. The company framed the decision on social media and in a blog post as a lack of "a path toward sustainability," with the final patch scheduled for October and servers kept online for the foreseeable future. The blog acknowledged that "most other fighting game players struggled to find reasons to stick with the game," even though dedicated tag-fighter fans responded positively.
Refunds, unlocks, and remaining content
Riot confirmed it will refund in-game purchases made before August 20, processing reimbursements by November. Once active development ends, all previously announced characters will be unlocked at no cost, and a one-time bundle containing nearly every cosmetic item will be available for $39.99. Two final champions, Lux and Samira, are still planned for September and October releases. After development concludes, ranked lobbies will be disabled, leaving skill-based casual matchmaking as the only public online mode, with no further seasons, battle passes, or major content updates planned.
Why Riot stopped
The developer said the game's revenue, player retention, and engagement reached "only a fraction" of what would be required to justify continued investment, making further active development "impossible." Riot added that the decision followed a deliberate review of alternatives, including shrinking the team, adjusting the patch cadence, and reworking the business model, before the team opted to finish existing content and step back. As of the announcement, no layoffs tied specifically to the 2XKO team have been reported.
A wider pattern of retrenchment at Riot
The wind-down continues a sequence of pullbacks from projects outside League of Legends. In January 2024, Riot laid off roughly 530 employees, about 11% of its workforce, and shut down Riot Forge, its indie publishing label. Legends of Runeterra was dramatically downsized, with development pivoted toward the single-player Path of Champions mode and competitive PvP deprioritized. The planned Riot Esports Network streaming platform was scrapped shortly after the 2024 layoffs, and in June 2025, Riot canceled Hytale, the Minecraft-inspired sandbox acquired in 2020, eventually returning the project to its original developers.
What remains uncertain
It is unclear how long Riot intends to keep 2XKO servers operational beyond the maintenance phase, and the company has not disclosed long-term support commitments. The post does not specify whether existing players will retain access to previously purchased cosmetics once refunds close out. The size and future allocation of the development team also remain unspecified, with no confirmation of reassignments, transfers, or pending staff changes.
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