Riot Games cuts 80 roles from the 2XKO development team, halving the staff. Executive Producer Tom Cannon cites performance trends following console expansion.
Riot Games cuts 80 roles from the 2XKO development team, halving the staff. Executive Producer Tom Cannon cites performance trends following console expansion.
#Riot Games
The relentless cycle of industry layoffs continues 📉, with Riot Games 🎮 becoming the latest studio to reduce its workforce ✂️. The company has announced substantial cuts to the development team behind 2XKO 👊, its tag-team fighting game. A representative for Riot confirmed to Game Developer that approximately 80 roles are being eliminated 👥, effectively halving the project’s global staff 📉.
Executive Producer Tom Cannon addressed the reasoning behind the decision in a blog post 📝, pointing to performance metrics 📊 following the game’s platform expansion. “As we expanded from PC to console 💻🎮, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO,” Cannon wrote. He noted that while the fighter has “resonated with a passionate core audience ❤️,” the overall momentum simply hasn’t reached the threshold necessary to support a team of that size for the long term 🤝.
This restructuring 🏗️ comes shortly after 2XKO’s console launch last month 🚀. Despite the significant reduction in workforce, Cannon clarified that the roadmap for the 2026 competitive season 🏆 remains unchanged. He further noted that Riot plans to prioritize internal redeployment 🔄, attempting to place affected employees into open positions elsewhere within the company wherever possible 💼.
