A free-to-play fighting game that only launched this January is wrapping up before even hitting its one-year mark. Riot Games has announced that its first fighting game, '2XKO,' will end active development in December. The reason is blunt: operating costs far exceeded revenue, and player engagement remained flat even after several major updates, showing no signs of improvement.
Starting August 20, players can no longer purchase KO Points in the '2XKO' store, and Riot has simultaneously begun processing refunds for all in-game purchases made before that date. PC players are expected to receive refunds "within two weeks," with Riot aiming to complete all PC refunds by November. PlayStation and Xbox players may be contacted by their respective platform's customer support in the coming weeks to confirm payment information before refunds are issued.
The game itself won't disappear right away. Riot says servers will remain online, and '2XKO' will continue to be available as a free download on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S—there just won't be any new content in development going forward.
Two Final Characters and One Last Content Push
Before development wraps, '2XKO' still has two more substantial updates planned. The 1.3.1 update on September 8 will add the support-mage character Lux, alongside the launch of a $39.99 "2XKO Ultimate Bundle" that includes nearly all in-game cosmetic items, including Lux's exclusive skin. This update will also shift items like stages and player profile cosmetics to be purchasable with in-game earned currency, remove the ranked lobby, and make all characters free to play.
The 1.3.3 update in October will bring '2XKO's' final new character—the pistol-wielding ADC Samira. If needed, a small bug-fixing update may still roll out in December, after which the development team will officially step away.
In its statement, Riot admitted that "hardcore duo-fighting fans loved '2XKO,' but most other fighting game players struggled to find a reason to keep playing," while emphasizing that "if we saw any viable path forward, we would keep developing it." When the game launched this January, it marked Riot Games' latest attempt to expand beyond PC, following 'Valorant's' console port in 2024. Back in February, '2XKO's' development team was cut in half—an early sign that raised outside doubts about the game's performance.
