{"id":744582,"date":"2026-08-21T00:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/744582\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T00:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:38:16","slug":"ps5-fighting-game-2xko-throws-in-the-towel-just-cant-get-enough-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/744582\/","title":{"rendered":"PS5 Fighting Game 2XKO Throws in the Towel, Just Can&#8217;t Get Enough Players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"2XKO Ending Development\" href=\"https:\/\/images.pushsquare.com\/5f34b038eacad\/2xko-ending-development.large.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2xko-ending-development.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" alt=\"2XKO Ending Development\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The live service space is brutal \u2014 and I imagine that cracking it is even harder when you&#8217;re a fighting game.<\/p>\n<p>Fairly high expectations were placed upon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps5\/2xko\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2XKO<\/a> when it was first announced and eventually released into early access on PC. A free-to-play fighting game felt like a bold step forward for the genre \u2014 and being based on League of Legends, it had serious weight behind it in terms of brand recognition.<\/p>\n<p>But it just never seemed to stick. The tag brawler released for PS5 in January of this year, and it was only a matter of weeks before we heard about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/news\/2026\/02\/its-not-looking-good-for-fighting-game-2xko-just-weeks-after-ps5-debut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the development team being downsized<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Riot Games reassuring players that it would remain focused on adding to and improving 2XKO, the writing was on the wall. If it couldn&#8217;t start attracting more players at a relatively rapid pace, then it wouldn&#8217;t last.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it sounds like the numbers simply never increased. And now, Riot Games has confirmed that active development on 2XKO will cease at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>A refreshingly transparent statement from the team reads:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the last few months, we\u2019ve been monitoring 2XKO\u2019s trajectory closely, and what we\u2019ve seen is painting a clear, consistent picture: while a lot of you jumped in to try the game and there&#8217;s an incredible community that plays every day, we haven\u2019t seen enough players stick with the game to get to a path toward sustainability.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It should be stressed that 2XKO will remain online for the foreseeable future \u2014 it&#8217;s not getting shut down or anything like that. It just won&#8217;t be receiving any additional support in the form of updates and DLC.<\/p>\n<p>A &#8220;final bug fix patch&#8221; will drop in December, and that&#8217;ll be that.<\/p>\n<p>But before then, update 1.3.1, which is out in September, will add Lux as a new character. A new cosmetic bundle will be made available for purchase as well, priced at $39.99 \/ \u00a333.99 \/ \u20ac39.99.<\/p>\n<p>This DLC pack will include &#8220;all skins, skin chromas, and taunts for every champion up to and including Lux, plus all currently-released finishers&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>So basically, it&#8217;s giving players a way to buy everything in one big package.<\/p>\n<p>Another patch, arriving in October, will add Samira as the game&#8217;s final character. Players who bought the aforementioned bundle will unlock the newly added stuff at no extra cost.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For now, we\u2019re focused on leaving 2X in a great spot. Then, we\u2019ll head back into the R&amp;D lab, where we\u2019ll take time to learn and work on how we come back stronger for the next swing at the next genre,&#8221; the blog post concludes.<\/p>\n<p>Did you ever give 2XKO a shot? Did you stick with it? Are you sad to see it ending development? Tag someone in the comments section below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text source\">[source <a class=\"external\" title=\"External Link: https:\/\/www.riotgames.com\/en\/news\/2xko-active-development-ends-december-2026\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.riotgames.com\/en\/news\/2xko-active-development-ends-december-2026\" target=\"_blank\">riotgames.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>\tRelated Games<\/p>\n<p>\tSee Also<\/p>\n<p class=\"avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767943929_865_avatar.jpg\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Robert Ramsey\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Robert (or Rob if you&#8217;re lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan of PlayStation since the 90s, when Tekken 2 introduced him to the incredible world of video games. He still takes his fighting games seriously, but RPGs are his true passion. The Witcher, Persona, Dragon Quest, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Trails, Tales \u2014 he&#8217;s played &#8217;em all. A little too much, some might say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The live service space is brutal \u2014 and I imagine that cracking it is even harder when you&#8217;re&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133703,59,112,133702,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-744582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-2xko","tag-gb","tag-ps5","tag-riot-games","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}