Riot's 2XKO Said Goodbye in Seven Words. Marc Merrill and a Riot MMO Producer Reposted It, After He Put 2XKO's Player Need at High Hundreds of Thousands, If Not Millions.

What Happened

2XKO's last post went up on November 6, and Riot's August 20 post gives its reasons for ending the game.

The farewell

• The last post. @Play2XKO posted "fight on. thank you for playing 2XKO." on November 6, with art of the full roster.
• Two reposts. Riot co-founder Marc Merrill reposted it, as did Sarah Tudor, a game producer on the Riot MMO who worked on 2XKO's stages.
• Her stage work. Tudor posted on October 30 about 2XKO's stage for Sett, one of the game's last two fighters: "Can't tell you how fun it was to work on this stage."
• Channels in stasis. Ben 'Draggles' Forbes, author of the Weekend Warmup posts on the 2XKO site, wrote on November 5: "Tomorrow, 2XKO's social channels go into stasis."
• The team moves. The post says "many of the 2XKO Rioters move to other projects across the company." Riot didn't name the projects.

What is still coming

• Servers stay on. Riot said in August: "Servers will remain on beyond 2026, and 2XKO will be playable on all platforms."
• Final patches. Patch 1.3.3b lands November 12, and an optional bugfix patch, 1.3.3c, is listed for early December.
• Two listed events. The Battle Coliseum Major runs November 20 to 22, and MINDSET 2026 runs November 27 to 29.
• The last fighters. Samira and Sett, the pair in the trailer below, arrived October 27 in the game's last big patch.

Why Riot ended it

• Too few stayed. Riot said on August 20: "we haven't seen enough players stick with the game to get to a path toward sustainability."
• Flat engagement. The same post says "engagement has stayed relatively flat despite our larger updates."
• Merrill's number. Asked on The Lemonade Stand podcast what would have kept the game alive, Merrill said: "At their cost structure, it would have been in, you know, in the high hundreds of thousands", then "if not millions".
• Which players. GosuGamers, one of the outlets covering the shutdown, reads his figure as monthly active users.
• Refunds. Purchases made on or before August 20 are being refunded, according to Outlook Respawn, GosuGamers and games.gg.
• No MMO mention. Riot said it would "head back into the R&D lab" and "you can count on Riot to keep exploring new genres." The post doesn't mention an MMO.

The MMO question

• Riot's MMO clip. Riot posted on September 5: "So about that MMO we're building… @MarcMerrill on chasing the grail during his @PAX storytime."
• Executive producer's post. Fabrice Condominas, the MMO's executive producer, quote-posted it: "I can confirm that this project is not for the faint of heart."
• One direct reply. @peach_bunns replied: "are you guys just gonna pull the plug 6 months in just like yall did with 2XKO?" It has 1 like, so it's one voice.
• Most-liked reply. We reported that the clip's most-liked public reply was about 2XKO too.
• A streamer's worry. Streamer @Voltaictv, as quoted by EsportNow: "Myself and many many others are afraid of your track record of canceling games that dont make billions of revenue."

What This Means for the Riot MMO

Riot has announced no business model, budget or player target for its MMO.

• Riot's own measures. Retention, flat engagement and operating cost are Riot's most recent public reasons for ending a live game, and the ones players can cite at an MMO launch.
• Running costs. MMOs need big worlds and servers, so they're rarely cheap to run. Riot has published no budget or player target for its own.
• Support length. Riot's PAX West post on the MMO offered "chasing the grail" and no details. We found no Riot commitment on how long it would support the game.
• Wind-down precedent. 2XKO's servers and refunds show how Riot closed out this game. Riot has made no such promise about the MMO.
• No announced move. Riot hasn't said any 2XKO staff are moving to the MMO. Our watchlist record dates Tudor's MMO role to her June 3 join post, before the August post.

Our read. 2XKO doesn't predict the MMO's fate. Merrill tied his number to 2XKO's "cost structure", and Riot hasn't published the MMO's. What Riot can do now is say how long it will support the game, which would answer "pull the plug" better than "chasing the grail" does.

What To Watch

Three dated 2XKO items remain in November.

Your Take

Reported from 2XKO and corroborating coverage. The MMO read is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.