Riot Games has confirmed that it’s shedding 80 2XKO builders fewer than three weeks after the combating sport’s console launch. In the interim, a smaller workforce will work on “key enhancements to the sport,” and its 2026 Aggressive Collection will go on as deliberate.
2XKO is a League of Legends spin-off combating sport that has been within the works at Riot Games for a couple of decade. It is a tag-team fighter constructed for co-op play. After years of behind-closed-doors testing and a number of other betas, it entered early entry on PC in November 2025. On January 20 of this 12 months, 2XKO launched on PS5 and Xbox Collection X|S.
Sadly, a brand new blog post from Riot Games indicated that 2XKO hasn’t been as profitable because the studio hoped for. “As we expanded from PC to console, we noticed constant traits in how gamers had been participating with 2XKO,” government producer Tom Cannon wrote. “The sport has resonated with a passionate core viewers, however total momentum hasn’t reached the extent wanted to help a workforce of this dimension long run.”
Sport Developer confirmed that round 80 workers at Riot Games had been impacted by this, whereas Riot’s weblog publish says these affected will get six months of discover pay and severance if they are not positioned elsewhere within the firm. One developer on Bluesky shared that that they had been unceremoniously laid off within the span of simply half-hour after engaged on 2XKO for a decade and spending 12 years at Riot.
Cannon did not go into too many specifics on the sport’s future within the weblog publish, however mentioned 2XKO’s builders are engaged on “key enhancements” that the group have requested. Riot Games additionally plans to uphold its partnerships with FGC event organizers and hold 2XKO’s 2026 Competitive Series operating.