Riot Co-Founder Defends 2XKO as Development Shutdown Looms

After years of development and a turbulent launch, Riot Games' tag fighter 2XKO reached its end in August, with the company announcing a shutdown of future development by year's end and issuing refunds for all in-game purchases.

At PAX West this weekend, Riot co-founder Marc Merrill addressed the failure directly, framing it not as a mistake but as an ambitious swing that missed. "I wouldn't characterise 2XKO as a mistake," Merrill said when asked about past missteps. He pointed to meetings with EVO founders Tom and Tony Cannon that had convinced him and fellow co-founder Brandon Beck of the opportunity. "We thought that there were a lot of opportunities in and around the competitive scene; thought that there were going to be benefits to the free-to-play model; thought the League IP could be incredibly cool both for League players and players in the FGC."

The core problem, according to Merrill, stems from the brutal economics of live-service gaming. With over 20,000 games launching on Steam annually and infinite content available on social media and YouTube, standing out demands exceptional execution. "You're not just competing against games, you're competing against everything," Merrill explained. "What we're doing is competing for people's attention and time and that's a really high bar." He acknowledged that 2XKO "unfortunately, um, didn't do that."

Merrill maintained that the game itself was well-made and the team's intentions were sincere, but success in live service requires "so many things right" to build sufficient critical mass. Despite the setback, he signaled Riot's willingness to continue experimenting with new projects, noting that development on the studio's in-progress MMO remains active.