What you need to know
- Riot Games' fighting game Project L is now officially titled 2XKO.
- Set in the world of Runeterra, the game pulls in a roster of League of Legends characters such as Jinx and Ahri.
- 2XKO is slated to arrive in 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.
There's a new kid on the block for fighting games.
Riot Games' upcoming title Project L is now officially known as 2XKO. The title — which is evidently pronounced exactly how it's spelled — comes after years of testing and teasing.
In a video discussing the game and what players can expect, Riot Games executive producer Tom Cannon mentioned that the game was entering a "new phase of development" and while there's a ways to go, the team is planning a number of events for later this year in order to continue garnering feedback.
Cannon also confirmed that 2XKO will be coming to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5, with a planned release window of some time in 2025. Pulling from the world of Runeterra, 2XKO's roster includes League of Legends character such as Ahri, Ekko, and Jinx. You can check out the title reveal trailer below:
This news also comes as Riot Games recently laid off hundreds of workers, with around 11% of the publisher affected. With the layoffs, Riot Games doubled down on a handful of projects including League of Legends and 2XKO, shuttering the Riot Forge program that saw independent studios partner with Riot in order to produce small games set in the world of Runeterra.
A big time for fighting games
The last year has seen a number of well-received fighting games launch, with NetherRealm's Mortal Kombat 1 and Capcom' Street Fighter 6 both seeing critical praise and commercial success in 2023.
Meanwhile, Xbox first-party fighting game Killer Instinct (which first launched back in 2013) was semi-resurrected after years of quiet, with a balance pass and Xbox Series X|S update handled by the team at Iron Galaxy, which culminated in the launch of Killer Instinct: Anniversary Edition. The team didn't stop there, and ranked cross-play is now in testing for Xbox and Windows PC players.
2024 continued the trend of great fighting games with the launch of Tekken 8 from Bandai Namco, which has similarly seen critical acclaim and strong sales so far.
Analysis: A cool game, but the title is an L
2XKO looks really cool, and I love the concept of adapting League of Legends characters into a fighting game. I'll be looking forward to any kind of public beta this year. With that said, that title is...something. Project L was never great, but over the last four years people had the chance to get used to it. 2XKO just doesn't flow off the tongue.
Still, as long as the gameplay is great, that's what really matters here. Hopefully we learn about some more characters in the roster soon.
