LoL fighting game 2XKO to get no more content and will shut down

The LoL fighting game will get no more content after December 2026.

Riot Games announced these days that it will end development of its fighting game called 2XKO.

The game was announced in 2019, but was released less than 1 year ago and is already being wrapped up.

Riot says the servers will be kept online after the last update scheduled for December, for anyone who wants to play online, and in September all characters will be unlocked, and those who spent money on the game buying skins and cosmetic items will be refunded.

After these things happen, it’s pretty easy to point to the reasons why the game didn’t get the expected success. So I’ll type up my 5 cents of opinion here.

Keep in mind I’m a guy with more XP than the kids who are LoL’s target audience, and a good part of my childhood was spent saving coins to buy tokens and play in the unsanitary arcades that existed by the dozens in every neighborhood in Brazil.

The game’s name was (still is) shit. I call it TwoXiko (or tiochico).
As far as I know, it doesn’t resemble or refer to anything from LoL. Which could have given it more visibility and maybe brought interest from the public.

Another thing: Tag Team.
If fighting games are already niche by default, then folks decide to use a duo system, which is the niche within the niche.
If the game were paid, it would sell two dozen units and half would ask for a refund.

The gameplay only has the “modern mode” without the traditional command inputs, which have existed since Street Fighter 2 cemented that concept.
This is good for the generation that has never set foot in a dive bar to play some rounds, but it drives away a large number of potential customers, who follow and consume fighting games.

From what I saw, the absence of some of LoL’s more famous characters was one of the complaints.
I can’t give an opinion on that, since I’m not an audience for LoL or MOBAs.
It seems they put a nice focus on the lineup from that Netflix series Arcane, while leaving more famous ones out (or they were planned to arrive later).