Riot Games' tag fighter, 2XKO, saw its development halted in August after a challenging launch and subsequent layoffs. While the game will receive support through the end of the year, Riot admitted it struggled to achieve the necessary momentum for sustainability. Co-founder Marc Merrill recently elaborated on the situation, explaining that while 2XKO was not a "mistake," its difficulties stemmed from the intense competition for player attention.
Merrill detailed how the initial concept for 2XKO arose from a meeting with EVO founders and developers Tom and Tony Cannon. The team saw potential in leveraging the League of Legends intellectual property for both existing fans and the fighting game community (FGC), aiming for a free-to-play model with innovative tag mechanics. "We delivered a game that's beautiful, that took risks with the tag system, all sorts of stuff," Merrill stated.
However, the reality of launching a live service game proved formidable. Merrill highlighted the overwhelming saturation of the entertainment market, noting that "you're not just competing against games, you're competing against everything." He explained that in a landscape where thousands of games launch on platforms like Steam and an endless stream of content floods social media and video platforms, capturing and retaining player attention is an exceptionally high bar.
"What we're doing is competing for people's attention and time and that's a really high bar, and you have to get so many things right to get enough critical mass to build the community and really have it turn into something that can be sustainable over the long term," Merrill said. He concluded that 2XKO "unfortunately, um, didn't do that."
Despite the game's outcome, Merrill maintained that 2XKO is "a great game" and that the team's desire to serve the FGC was genuine. He acknowledged that "we're not going to bat a thousand, we're not going to get everything right." He also assured that Riot's commitment to taking risks and experimenting with new projects remains strong, suggesting that the studio's other endeavors, such as its unannounced MMO, are not impacted by 2XKO's conclusion. Merrill's comments underscore the significant challenge of building a sustainable player base for live service games in today's crowded digital entertainment environment. The success of such titles hinges not only on game quality but also on cutting through a vast amount of competing content to secure and maintain player engagement. Despite the setback, Riot appears poised to continue exploring new game concepts.