Riot Games' fighting game take on the world of League of Legends, 2XKO, is winding down development. The developer shared word today that active development on the game is ending December this year, citing a lack of a strong enough adoption and retention rate for the fighting game.

As the studio explained in a blog post, servers will stay live beyond 2026, though how long that is isn't clear just yet, and that the game will remain playable on all platforms (it does have an offline mode, meaning even if and when the servers go down there shouldn't be too much of a concern for local play). Up until now, you had to unlock champs for use in online play, but the entire roster will be available to choose from now.

Those of you that have spent money in the game also won't need to start typing out an angry comment about how much you've wasted, as anything purchased before August 20th (today) will be refunded, and you get to keep everything you bought too. From the game's next patch, coming September 8th, you'll be able to play as Lux, a "shoto-inspired character with a simple kit, who harnesses the power of light to illuminate her enemies."

A new bundle is being also being added alongside this patch that'll set you back $40/£33.99 which includes all skins, skin chromas, and taunts for every champion, and things like avatar items, certain base champion chromas, and stages will be unlockable with credits, a currency you can earn in-game. Ranked mode is being removed "to ensure that we can matchmake within a single pool of players per server," but casual lobbies will still be matchmade by skill. The October patch, the final major patch, will then add in Samira, the Desert Rose, a "bounty hunter who fights with bombastic flair, switching between her sword and dual pistols for maximum style."

Explaining the decision in the blog post, the team said that while they saw a committed community "fully embrace" the game in many ways, "it just wasn’t happening enough. Even within the genre, diehard tag fighter players loved 2XKO, but most other fighting game players struggled to find reasons to stick with the game."

The post continues to explain that even during some of the highlight moments, they saw "no meaningful, sustained change in 2XKO’s trajectory; only a fraction of what it would take to trend toward sustainability. Over time it became clear it would be impossible for us to continue actively developing the game as we are today… To be super clear: we would have continued active development if we saw any viable future, but 2XKO costs us substantially more to operate than it brings in, and engagement has stayed relatively flat despite our larger updates."

This unfortunately isn't much of a surprise. Fighting games can often be more of a niche than some might think, in no small part because the high skill floor can be incredibly off-putting for those not familiar with the genre. But also, about 80 devs were laid off only a month after launch. Any which way you look at it, that does not display confidence in the ability to grow an audience.

Solidarity with any devs that may be affected by this decision.