Less than a month after the launch of its free-to-play 2v2 tag-team fighting game, 2XKO, Riot Games is scaling back its development team.
Admitting the news was “difficult to share,” producer Tom Cannon said that despite securing a “passionate core audience,” the new game “hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.”
“With a smaller, focused team, we’re going to dig in and make key improvements to the game, including some of the things we’ve already heard you asking for. We’ll share some of our plans soon,” Cannon added. “Our plans for the 2026 Competitive Series are unchanged. We remain committed to partnering with tournament organizers and local communities. Our focus will continue to be on supporting the events and organizers that already power the [fighting game community].”
Cannon stressed that the team that built 2XKO “poured years of creativity, care, and belief into this game. Taking creative risks like this is hard, and the work they did is real and meaningful.”
“We’re committed to supporting impacted Rioters through this transition — including helping them explore opportunities within Riot where possible, and providing a minimum of 6 months of notice pay and severance where it’s not,” he explained.
Cannon closed on promising more information would come in time, and thanked players for playing 2XKO and “caring enough to ask hard questions.”
Riot has also confirmed to IGN that the cuts will affect approximately 80 roles globally, representing less than half of the total team. Figures are not final, however, as some staff may find roles elsewhere within the company.
IGN thought 2XKO was ‘Great.’ It returned an 8/10 in our review in which we wrote: “2XKO has found a way to distill what’s fun about tag fighters while mitigating a lot of the pain points that typically come with the territory.” It was announced back in The Game Awards 2025.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
