While there’s always flex and unforeseen obstacles when it comes to development timelines, fans of upcoming fighting game 2XKO felt like they had a pretty good idea of what 2025 held. Some big news in February, a big spring playtest, lots of exciting reveals and possibly even an open beta around the time of EVO, and then a release date later in the year. However, a new announcement from 2XKO’s game director reveals a change of plans for the League of Legends brawler, with its next playtest now ending up “much smaller” than the last.
Of all the LoL spinoff projects Riot has released or announced so far, 2XKO has always struck me as the most intriguing. A fighting game certainly makes sense, given the huge array of unique and already beloved characters that can be drawn from. But Riot’s approach in wanting to make a tag team brawler with an additional layer of strategy thanks to its Fuse abilities makes it stick out even further from the established competition. However, that ambition is taking some time to realize, and today’s announcement from game director Shaun Rivera will be disappointing for those that were looking forward to playing it again soon.
“We were planning on running a larger-scale global playtest next month, and the Feb update was going to cover what was in that playtest,” Rivera says. “Instead, we are going to focus on running a much smaller one than Alpha Lab 1 while we build out the infrastructure needed to make sure we can get the game in even more players hands later this year.”
Rivera’s wording at the end there does give some hope that another big Alpha Lab-style playtest, or maybe even an open or closed beta, may still arrive in the coming months, but it’s clear that 2XKO’s timelines have been nudged back. While Rivera doesn’t address this specifically in his message, I do fear that the 2XKO release date may slip from its current 2025 window as a result.
However, a rushed fighting game that launches in a poor state is no use to anyone, and it does sound like some significant changes are being made behind the scenes. Rivera reveals that 2XKO’s Pulse Fuse, which enabled autocombos, has been totally ditched, and the ability to autocombo will now be tied to an in-game setting instead. He says there are two main points of feedback that led to this decision. “First, players really wanted autocombo functionality while also using a different Fuse. Second, players duoing with a friend wanted the option to individually turn Pulse on or off, especially when an experienced player was duoing with a friend who was new to the game.”
An all-new Fuse has also been revealed called Sidekick. This Fuse makes it so that your Point fighter and your Assist fighter never switch during a match.
“Instead, your assist champ stays sidelined to support your point champ, who gains additional health,” Rivera explains. “We received a ton of feedback from players who wanted an experience that felt like more of a support role where they could learn the game at their own pace, and we are excited to hear what you all think when you get a chance to check it out in the future.”
So, unless you’re a long-serving and reliable tester for 2XKO, you’re probably not going to be able to play it for another few months yet. While that’s disappointing, here are some other excellent multiplayer games and free PC games that we wholeheartedly recommend.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.