Riot Games co-founder and chief product officer Mark Merrill spoke publicly about the reasons for the collapse of fighting game 2XKO, admitting that the project faced catastrophic financial and organizational difficulties.
According to him, in order to justify the huge budget and maintain a mature live streaming service model, the game needs to maintain “hundreds of thousands or even millions” of active players per month – a number that is completely unattainable for the niche fighting game genre, and even a popular game like “Street Fighter 6” is completely different in scale.
Merrill also pointed out that the protracted development and release of Street Fighter 6 disrupted the studio’s original plans, and that internal disagreements and management confusion led to the deal being completed. As a result, Riot Games has decided to reduce support for the project and provide full refunds to players.