
Riot Games co-founder and chief product officer Mark Merrill commented on the difficult fate of fighting game 2XKO in a recent interview, with the game’s development coming to an end.
Despite boasting stylish visuals, a strong League of Legends universe, and the involvement of legendary developers Tom and Tony Cannon, the project was unable to reach the critical player numbers needed to be sustainable as a live service.
Merrill declined to call the game a mistake, noting that the team took calculated risks in trying to offer something new to the fighting game community. He said that in an era where tens of thousands of games are released each year and a large amount of media content is released, the main problem is fierce competition for users’ time and attention. Despite the shutdown of active support and refunds for players, the developers stressed that they are proud of the work they have done and have no plans to give up on bold experiments in the future.
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