Riot Games has issued an important update on 2XKO, including news on its next champion, Lux (Image: Riot Games)
After less than a year since its launch, fighting game 2XKO is being given up on by developer Riot Games. The League of Legends and Valorant studio announced it’ll sunset 2XKO this year, with “active development” coming to an end.
A final patch is planned to be released in December, and while servers will remain live to support online play, there will be no further updates once 2027 arrives. In a lengthy statement, Riot Games said the “dream” behind 2XKO was to make a game that the fighting game community (FGC) “would love to play with their friends”. Riot Games chiefs admitted that “there’s no perfect way to handle a decision like this”.
The statement read: “2XKO’s active development will conclude at the end of 2026. Over the last few months, we’ve been monitoring 2XKO’s trajectory closely, and what we’ve seen is painting a clear, consistent picture: while a lot of you jumped in to try the game and there’s an incredible community that plays every day, we haven’t seen enough players stick with the game to get to a path toward sustainability.
“Servers will remain on beyond 2026, and 2XKO will be playable on all platforms. Through the rest of 2026, we’ll be introducing content, feature improvements, and two new champions (Lux and Samira), with the intent to deliver our final bug fix patch in December of this year.
“After that, servers will remain on to support online play. Offline play is unaffected. We’ll give advanced notice if any of that changes.”
Refunds, cosmetic unlocks and next steps
Riot Games confirmed that any money spent in-game on 2XKO, which is free-to-play, on or before August 20 would be refunded. All of the 2v2 tag fighting game champions will be unlocked, too.
Furthermore, Riot Games announced its intention to bundle “most cosmetic items”, adding: “Any content owned is yours to keep. Avatar and player profile items will be unlockable for Credits.”
2XKO is being pulled from active development (Image: Riot Games)
The statement continued: “Our goal now is to do right by the players who have invested in us so far and want to continue playing 2XKO, as well as the Rioters who have poured everything into delivering on this dream.
“In recent months, the team has continued to take bold swings while fully aware of 2XKO’s challenges — but to attempt another year hoping for a way forward would have been an irresponsible choice for players and the dev team. 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.”
Final 2026 roadmap
As of August 20, Riot Games disabled the ability to purchase KO Points. Remaining KP Point balances can be spent in the rotating store before the arrival of patch 1.3.1, which is due to land on September 8.
On that date, the new champion – Lux, the Lady of Luminosity – will drop with the new update. Furthermore, a purchasable bundle of all cosmetic content will be released for £33.99 ($39.99/€39.99) called the 2XKO Ultimate Bundle.
It will contain all skins, skin chromas and taunts for every champion “up to and including” Lux, plus all currently released finishers.
Ranked lobbies will also be disabled from September 8, and the following live service aspects will be removed from the game:
New 2XKO champion Samira will arrive in October (Image: Riot Games)
Samira, the Desert Rose, will be 2XKO’s final champion and is coming alongside patch 1.3.3 in October. The 2XKO Ultimate Bundle will be updated to include all remaining skins and cosmetics, and owners of the bundle will automatically receive the new items.
Patch 1.3.3 will be the final major content drop for 2XKO, with one last patch focuses on bug fixes in December with update 1.3.5. Riot Games promises that the game will remain free to download on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Riot Games added: “We want to do right by the players who want to continue playing 2XKO, and deeply respect the love put into the game and the scene up to now. 2XKO remains online and playable, and we aren’t going anywhere yet.
“We’ve still got more content to show you through the end of this year, and we are truly grateful to everyone who has been a part of 2XKO’s journey so far.
