Riot Games has announced a wave of layoffs to keep 2XKO “sustainable.”
Riot Games has announced a wave of layoffs impacting the development team of its recently-released League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO. The game, which only just launched its first season of live-service content on both consoles and PC, is said to have not reached the “overall momentum” necessary to support its team “long term.”
Riot announces layoffs impacting 2XKO’s development team
In a statement penned by 2XKO’s executive producer Tom Cannon, developer Riot Games confirmed a wave of layoffs impacting the fighting game’s development team. The layoffs have already been executed, as noted by some Riot staffers online, who confirmed that they were given 30 minutes of notice before being abruptly laid off earlier today.
According to Kotaku, the layoffs have impacted 80 developers on 2XKO’s development team. According to Cannon, these layoffs were carried out because the game’s “overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.” Now, Riot plans to make “key improvements” to 2XKO with a “smaller, focused team.” However, Cannon stopped just short of providing exact details for those improvements.
Cannon noted that the team is now being reshaped “to give 2XKO a more sustainable path forward.” Laid off 2XKO developers are being given a minimum of six months of notice pay and severance, if Riot is unable to find them roles elsewhere in the company.
Meanwhile, Riot’s plans for 2XKO’s 2026 Competitive Series remain unchanged. The developer is still looking to partner up with local communities and tournament organisers to keep this year’s 2XKO esports events going. As previously announced, the 2026 Competitive Series is set to consist of five Majors and 15 Challenger events, coming up to 20 tournaments supported by Riot.
These layoffs arrived rather quickly following 2XKO’s 1.0 launch on 20 January, which brought the game to consoles following its early access release on PC. The game also launched Season 1 with new playable fighter Caitlyn on the same day, with plans for more characters to be introduced in future seasons.
It is currently unclear just how much Riot’s live-service plans for 2XKO have been shaken up due to these layoffs, but it’s likely that they will be scaled down at minimum.
