According to Riot Games’ chief product officer Marc Merrill, the fighting‑game project known as 2XKO would have required a massive monthly active user (MAU) count—"in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions"—to be financially viable. In a recent interview on The Lemonade Stand podcast, which was highlighted by IGN, Merrill explained that although the title managed to strike a chord with a niche group of enthusiasts, the total player pool fell dramatically short of what a live‑service ecosystem demands. Merrill noted that the development team had poured considerable resources into 2XKO, but the numbers simply didn’t add up.
"We were spending substantially more to keep the servers running and to roll out updates than we were earning from the game," he said. "Engagement metrics stayed relatively flat even after we released larger patches and new content drops." As a result, Riot decided to halt active development on the title in August, shifting its focus to maintaining the existing infrastructure rather than expanding the game further. Despite the cessation of new content, 2XKO remains accessible to players at no cost on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Riot has committed to keeping the game’s servers online at least through 2026, ensuring that the community that does exist can continue to enjoy the experience without interruption. This continued support reflects Riot’s broader philosophy of preserving its games for the long term, even when they no longer receive active updates.
One of the external factors that Merrill highlighted was the timing of Street Fighter 6’s launch. "We had a window where we could have done some truly great things for the fighting‑game community," he recalled. "Then Street Fighter 6 arrived, which was about eight years after we first began work on 2XKO." The release of such a high‑profile, established franchise inevitably drew attention and player dollars away from the newer Riot title, making it even harder for 2XKO to achieve the critical mass it needed. Merrill expressed a sense of missed opportunity, suggesting that if 2XKO had been released earlier—ideally years before Street Fighter 6—it could have made a far more significant impact on the competitive fighting‑game scene.
"We had an awesome development team of really talented people that did great work and made a beautiful game," he said. "We’d already communicated all this stuff to players, and so we were like, ‘You know what? Let’s keep going, let’s give it to the community. Let’s see what happens.’" The origins of 2XKO trace back to Riot’s 2016 acquisition of Radiant Entertainment.
Radiant had previously launched a free‑to‑play fighting prototype called Rising Thunder in an alpha state in 2015. Although Rising Thunder garnered a modest following, Riot eventually removed it from storefronts and cancelled further development. A year later, the company released the game's code as open source, allowing the community to explore its mechanics.
Merrill explained that the inspiration for 2XKO came from blending the simplicity and elegance of Rising Thunder’s 1v1 combat system with Riot’s own intellectual property, specifically the characters known as the Cannon brothers from the League of Legends universe. The goal was to craft a Riot‑styled competitive ecosystem that retained the accessibility of a straightforward control scheme while leveraging the brand recognition of League. However, the journey from concept to launch was not without internal challenges. Leadership turnover within Riot led to a lack of cohesive strategic direction for the project.
Merrill described a period of “managerial fracturing,” where different executives offered conflicting guidance on how the game should evolve. This misalignment, he said, forced the team to navigate a confusing set of priorities, ultimately contributing to the decision to cease further development.
When reflecting on the outcome, Merrill emphasized accountability. "We've got nobody to blame but ourselves," he admitted, underscoring that the shortcomings were rooted in internal decision‑making rather than external market forces alone. In summary, 2XKO’s story illustrates the difficulties of launching a new live‑service fighting game in a crowded market dominated by legacy franchises.
Even with a talented development team, a solid conceptual foundation, and ongoing post‑launch support, the title struggled to attract the massive user base required to sustain its operational costs. The timing of competing releases, internal strategic discord, and the sheer scale of the audience needed all played pivotal roles in shaping the game’s fate.
While Riot continues to keep the servers alive for existing fans, the experience serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of clear vision, consistent leadership, and realistic expectations for player adoption in the highly competitive world of online gaming.