RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 6 sourceson Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Michael McWhertor Published Aug 20, 2026, 4:16 PM EDT News The League of Legends fighting game was in development for nearly a decade
Riot Games' 2XKO layoffs confirm its struggle to move into new genres Pokémon Silver and Gold remake rumors sparked by Nintendo tease 7 criminally underappreciated Final Fantasy games Riot gives up on 2XKO, ending 'active development' of struggling fighting game 2XKO Sign in to your Polygon.com account Riot Games is ending active development on its League of Legends fighting game 2XKO . The developer announced Thursday that it plans to finish the game's remaining work-in-progress content and end active development in December.
"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," Riot said in a post on the company's official website.
Riot Games announced two more characters for 2XKO last month at Evo 2026 , where the game was part of the fighting game tournament's official lineup. It was the third-most popular game at Evo, behind Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 .
2XKO will remain playable "beyond 2026" on the game's available platforms, Riot said. "Through the rest of 2026, we’ll be introducing content, feature improvements, and two new champions (Lux and Samira), with the intent to deliver our final bug fix patch in December of this year," Riot explained. "After that, servers will remain on to support online play. Offline play is unaffected. We’ll give advanced notice if any of that changes."
Riot said that after evaluating the game's performance — revenue, retention, new players, and engagement — but that even with major new updates, the company "saw no meaningful, sustained change in 2XKO ’s trajectory; only a fraction of what it would take to trend toward sustainability. Over time it became clear it would be impossible for us to continue actively developing the game as we are today."
The developer added, "To be super clear: we would have continued active development if we saw any viable future, but 2XKO costs us substantially more to operate than it brings in, and engagement has stayed relatively flat despite our larger updates."
Riot said it is ending sales of KO Points, 2XKO 's premium currency, and unlocking all champions.
Riot says it will refund all purchases made in 2XKO on or before Aug. 20.
For PC players, all KO Points and 2XKO Starter Edition purchases made prior to August 20 will be refunded to the payment method used to purchase them. We plan to have most refunds distributed in the next two weeks, and hope to be finished with all PC refunds by November 2026. We appreciate your patience as we process these.
For PlayStation and XBOX players, KO Points and 2XKO Starter Edition purchases made prior to August 20 will be refunded through the platform and provider used to purchase. PlayStation or XBOX customer support may reach out to confirm payment details in the coming weeks.
As announced at Evo 2026, Lux, the Lady of Luminosity, will arrive in September alongside 2XKO patch 1.3.1. Riot describes Lux as a "shoto-inspired character with a simple kit, who harnesses the power of light to illuminate her enemies." In October, Riot will add 2XKO 's final champion, Samira, the Desert Rose, "a bounty hunter who fights with bombastic flair, switching between her sword and dual pistols for maximum style."
One more patch is planned for release in December that will focus on bug fixes, not "major new content."
2XKO servers remain online, and the game will still be available to download for free on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
Riot Games released 2XKO in October 2025 after nearly a decade of development and testing. The fighting game brings together a subset of League of Legends' champions in 2v2 tag battles. Ultimately, 2XKO will feature 17 playable characters when active development ends.
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