Riot Games' new title '2XKO', which garnered attention as a fighting game based on League of Legends, is reducing its development team by half just three weeks after its official launch. The reason is lackluster performance.

Riot Games announced on its official website on the 9th (local time) that it has decided to downsize the 2XKO development team. Tom Cannon, Executive Producer for 2XKO at Riot Games, stated, "As we expanded from PC to consoles, a consistent trend emerged for 2XKO. While it received a great response from the core fan base, the overall growth did not reach a level sufficient to maintain a team of this size in the long term."

According to a report by the overseas gaming magazine PC Gamer, which interviewed a Riot Games representative, the number of staff being reduced is approximately 80, which is about half of the 2XKO development team. The exact number has not yet been finalized, and affected employees will be given the opportunity to apply for other roles within the company. Departing employees will receive at least six months of salary and severance pay.

Executive Producer Cannon added that for 2XKO, they plan to focus on developing essential improvements for the game with a smaller but more focused team, and will also reflect requests made by users. In addition, the 'Competitive Series' tournament planned for this year will proceed as scheduled.

2XKO is a fighting game where players compete as League of Legends champions. It was released in early access last October and officially kicked off its first season on January 21st. Although they introduced a new champion, 'Caitlyn', various skins, and a battle pass with the start of the first season, it appears that it did not turn the overall atmosphere around.

After the success of League of Legends, Riot Games introduced the card game 'Legends of Runeterra' and the fighting game '2XKO' based on the IP, but neither has achieved significant results. Additionally, they have been internally developing a new MMO based on League of Legends for a long time, but there is no clear news yet. In the meantime, they discovered Valorant and the animated series 'Arcane' was a hit, but the expansion of the League of Legends IP into other games has been somewhat sluggish.