Riot Games has announced major 2XKO development team layoffs. The company is reducing the size of the League of Legends development team, which will cost about 80 jobs, or almost half of the game’s development team around the world.
The heads of 2XKO made the decision a few weeks after the game came out on all consoles. They said, “For a long time, player engagement hasn’t been high enough to support a team this big.”
XKO is Riot Games’ first fighting game (FGC). The 2v2 tag-team fighter, which was first called “Project L,” is set in the League of Legends universe and took almost ten years to make. It came out in early access on PC in late 2025, and then it came out fully on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on January 20, 2026.
The 2XKO development team will assess the company’s performance after the console release. According to executive producer Tom Cannon’s blog, “As the team moved from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO.”
“He said there was a “passionate core audience,” but “overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.” In short, the game didn’t get enough players quickly enough after its release to justify the team size.
The immediate impact on the 2XKO development team layoffs and development roadmap
This choice has a big effect on a lot of people, even those who have been developers for a long time. Patrick Miller, a former senior game producer, said he was fired after working on the project “in some form for a decade.”
- Severance and Support: Riot has said that it will help affected employees find other jobs within the company whenever possible. Riot is giving at least six months’ notice pay and severance to people who can’t be placed.
- Future Development Plans: Riot says that core support for the game will keep going. Cannon said, “With a smaller, more focused team, we’re going to dig in and make important changes to the game.” The company also says that plans for the 2026 Competitive Series are still the same.
The 2XKO development team layoffs are not a one-time thing; they happen a lot in the gaming industry. Studios often change the size of their teams after a game is released. For instance, they could go from having a lot of people work on a movie to having a smaller group work on live service and content.
A smaller group will make the decisions about what happens to 2XKO in the future. Riot says that the first thing they will do is make the “key improvements” that the community has been asking for.
For the game to be successful in the long run, this smaller team needs to be able to keep up with a regular schedule of content updates, balance the game, and support the competitive scene to keep its core players and bring in new ones.
FAQ
Q: How many members of the 2XKO team were laid off?
Approximately 80 individuals, or half of the game’s worldwide development team, were let go.
Q: After the layoffs, will 2XKO continue to receive assistance and updates?
Indeed, Riot Games has stated that a smaller team will continue to work on the project. Despite their pledge to make significant changes, the 2026 Competitive Series is still proceeding as planned.
Q: What caused Riot Games to fire the 2XKO team?
According to the company, players didn’t play the game as much or recover as quickly as they had hoped after it was released on consoles. The larger development team was not sustained for very long by the “overall momentum.”
Conclusion: The 2XKO development team layoffs represent a difficult but strategic change for Riot Games, shifting the fighter to a more sustainable operational model after its launch failed to meet growth targets, signaling a new chapter for the game’s development with a reduced team.
