While I was saddened when Riot Games announced the end of development for 2XKO, I was not surprised.
Released less than a year ago after over a decade of development, even Riot Games admits that 2XKO never made the big splash within the fighting game community (FGC) that it needed to. In retrospect, there are a few different seasons I can identify for its failure. Together, those problems paint a clear picture: 2XKO overcomplicated itself too much to achieve its goal of being the next big, approachable fighting game.
The issues with 2XKO start right there with the title. Its silly name has been the subject of much discourse, and it’s not like other fighting games don’t have ridiculous titles. Riot Games has argued that this title was its best choice because it “referenced duos, leveraged KO as a global term in fighting games, and it was striking when we saw it on the page.” That approach hides the game’s connection to League of Legends, one of the world’s most popular games, limiting its ability to have broad appeal from the start.
The more meaningful issues come from the gameplay itself. To Riot Games’ credit, they did take a bold swing with its co-op forward approach. The fighting game genre typically never strays too far from the ideas games like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Marvel vs. Capcom established. Having played the game during betas and its early access release, I just never found this approach more fun than in other fighting games.
Fighting games are inherently complex to learn and master, and 2XKO’s unique approach to co-op and tag-team play gave it too steep a learning curve. I just never found 2XKO fun or comprehensible enough to get into, so I let myself slide off its steep learning curve and go back to more well-established fighters like Street Fighter 6. Clearly, I wasn’t alone in feeling that.
A vibrant esports scene maybe could’ve saved 2XKO, too, but I was unimpressed watching pros play at events like EVO. Matches were slow and overly defensive. I’ve never seen the timer hit zero in so many rounds during a high-profile fighting game tournament. Perhaps that’s why events like EVO never offered the “meaningful, sustained change in 2XKO’s trajectory,” Riot hoped they would.
2XKO clearly has its fans, but I think it was scared of the League of Legends connection that could draw people in, too complex for its own good, and not that fun to watch competitively. While I hate to see any game fail, I wasn’t too surprised to learn that 2XKO didn’t meet Riot Games’ lofty expectations and that development is ending.
Still, I’m bummed to see 2XKO go out like this. Many developers put years of their lives into creating a game with a lot of style and original ideas for the genre. At least their work will live on for the foreseeable future, as Riot Games does not currently plan to take 2XKO offline and is making all of its fighters free for players.
Even though it’s definitely not going to be the next big thing for the FGC at this point, I hope it has a healthy future with passionate FGC fans at local tournaments.
