Riot Games компанийн тулаант тоглоомын салбар дахь томоохон төсөл болох 2XKO-ийн хөгжүүлэлтийг 2026 оны арванхоёрдугаар сард албан ёсоор зогсоохоор боллоо.
Riot Games-ийн үүсгэн байгуулагч Марк “Tryndamere” Мэррилл тус тоглоомыг амжилттай авч явахын тулд хэдэн зуун мянгаас сая хүртэлх идэвхтэй тоглогчийн бааз шаардлагатай байсныг онцолжээ. 2015 онд Radiant Entertainment-ийг худалдаж авснаар эхэлсэн уг төсөл нь “League of Legends”-ийн дүрүүдийг ашиглан өрсөлдөөнт экосистемийг бүрдүүлэх зорилготой байсан юм. Гэвч удирдах албан тушаалтнуудын солигдолт болон стратегийн чиглэл алдагдсан нь төслийн хөгжүүлэлтэд сөргөөр нөлөөлсөн байна.
Тоглоомын зах зээлд гарах хугацаа ч мөн хүндрэл учруулсан бөгөөд “Street Fighter 6” 2023 оны зургадугаар сард нээлтээ хийсэн нь 2XKO-д нөлөөлөх боломжит цонхыг хаасан гэж Мэррилл тайлбарлав. Хэдийгээр тоглоом нь тоглогчдын дунд тодорхой хэмжээний дэмжлэг авсан ч Riot Games-ийн зүгээс төлөвлөсөн контентын загварыг үргэлжлүүлэхэд шаардагдах зардал болон тоглогчийн тоо нийцэхгүй байв.
Үүний улмаас Riot Games төслийн хөгжүүлэлтийг зогсоож, тоглоомыг бүрэн хэмжээний бүтээгдэхүүн болгон гаргахаар шийджээ. Түүнчлэн 2026 оны наймдугаар сард баталснаар, тоглоом доторх контентын төлбөрийг буцаан олгох ажлыг зохион байгуулах юм. Энэхүү шийдвэр нь өндөр төсөвтэй тоглоомууд өрсөлдөөнт зах зээл дээр тогтвортой байхын тулд асар том тоглогчийн хүрээг бүрдүүлэх шаардлагатай гэдгийг харуулсан сургамжтай жишээ боллоо.
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A fighting game can have a gorgeous roster, a competitive circuit and a very Riot-sized bill to pay. Riot Games co-founder Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill said on the Lemonade Stand podcast that 2XKO needed a player base in the high hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, to stay alive at its cost structure. That is a stark benchmark for a game built to serve the fighting-game community over the long haul.
A big swing without a clear target
Merrill traced the project’s original idea to Riot’s partnership with the Cannon brothers and its 2015 purchase of Radiant Entertainment. The plan was to take the simple controls and depth of Rising Thunder, combine them with League of Legends characters, and build a Riot-style competitive ecosystem around the result.
That pitch had plenty of FGC appeal, but Merrill described a development path that lost strategic direction. Leadership changes, he said, led to managerial divisions and conflicting messages about whether the team should move quickly or wait until it could deliver a standout game. 2XKO’s development challenges were not just a matter of finding the right mechanics; the project also needed a settled idea of what it was trying to become.
Timing added another problem. Street Fighter 6 arrived in June 2023, and Merrill said its release closed a window in which he believed 2XKO could have made a major impact. He felt the game might have reached the community differently had it launched years earlier, but Riot continued with the project after communicating its plans to players and building what he described as a strong team and a polished game.
The live-service math stopped adding up
Merrill said 2XKO resonated with some players, but not enough to justify the ongoing-content model Riot had designed for it. The game’s team and cost structure were simply too large for the audience it had reached, making the high-hundreds-of-thousands-to-millions estimate an indication of the scale Merrill said the game would have needed to remain alive at its cost structure.
Riot’s response was to pivot toward a finished “box” product: players would receive the game’s in-game content, and refunds would be provided. The company had also built a competitive presence through the 2XKO Competitive Series, which culminated in a $75,000 major at EVO. Riot confirmed in August 2026 that active development would end in December 2026, while its plans for 2XKO’s 2026 content had already put ongoing support in the spotlight.
A brutal bar for a fighting game
The benchmark makes the commercial pressure behind 2XKO unusually visible. A fighting game’s competitive scene needs more than strong matches: Riot’s intended model also depended on enough players to support continued development and the wider ecosystem around the game. At this scale, a passionate core audience could still fall well short of the numbers needed to keep the planned service running.
Merrill linked the shortfall to both timing and internal strategy, rather than presenting the player estimate as the whole story. The competitive and spectating features around 2XKO show how much the game’s ambitions extended beyond simply shipping a fighter. The uncomfortable takeaway for the FGC is that a major publisher’s support can hinge on a scale of audience that even a compelling competitive game may struggle to reach.
