Riot Games is set to plant its flag in the fighting game genre with 2XKO and things are finally coming together in terms of the game’s early access release date, launch roster, platforms, and free-to-play model.
The publisher behind League of Legends was jokingly called “Riot Game” for a long while with its sole emphasis on the popular MOBA. That’s radically changed over the last few years, as the studio has made aggressive moves across a variety of genres and it’s looking to take over fighting games next.
While various publishers have tried to make free-to-play fighting games work, the biggest examples are generally considered flops. So can 2XKO succeed where the likes of Killer Instinct, Dead or Alive 5, and MultiVersus have largely failed? Fans will find out soon.
2XKO will release in early access on PC on Tuesday, October 7, 2025. No exact release date for the full version of the game has been confirmed for PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. The game was announced for a full 2025 release and there’s official no word yet on that changing.
While the game has been playable on consoles in closed beta stages, it’s unclear why early access is limited to PC. Regardless, some console players have had the chance to play 2XKO throughout September 2025. While PC players get the last taste of the game before its full release, console players haven’t been going hungry.
2XKO is slated to have at least 10 playable champions in its roster upon the full release of the game. The full confirmed 2XKO roster is as follows:
While 2XKO, originally known as Project L, has been confirmed for a long while, Riot Games has been very slow to add characters to it. That’s been doubly the case when it came to publicly playable versions of the game.
Jinx was among the first characters confirmed for 2XKO, but she wasn’t available in the original beta for the game or in demos made available at fighting game tournaments. She was later officially added after being reworked. Katarina was also shown in early marketing materials for the game, but she has not yet been confirmed as part of the roster.
The Latest on 2XKO – /dev diary
2XKO is set to be free-to-play, but will include microtransactions similar to those seen in Riot Games releases League of Legends and Valorant.
Executive producer Tom Cannon stated that the game will be free-to-play in a development update in 2022. In other interviews related to the games, he has discussed various monetization models for the game.
New playable champions will be added to the 2XKO roster following the game’s release.
Like many live-service games, 2XKO will have a seasonal format that includes a battle pass and other content updates. Riot’s current plan is to release a new playable character at the start of each season. 2026 is confirmed to have five seasons, not including the early access period. This means players can expect a total of 15 playable characters to be available in the game by the end of 2026.
It is unknown whether DLC characters will be free in 2XKO. Riot Games’ Valorant and League of Legends offer players the opportunity to unlock new characters for free, while offering the ability to instantly unlock them with money. Riot may take this approach, though this isn’t certain. While 2XKO will be free to play, pay-to-play fighting games including Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Guilty Gear Strive all have new characters behind seasonal paywalls.
Cannon stated that Riot will be “respectful of players’ time and wallets,” but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that anything will be free after the game’s initial release.
2XKO will have skins for its playable champions. This was confirmed alongside the early access start date with the reveal of a new look for Vi.
This wasn’t a particularly surprising announcement. Years prior, 2XKO executive producer Tom Cannon suggested in an interview that 2XKO would have cosmetic items for champions.
“As far as models, Riot has other titles in the free-to-play space like League of Legends and Valorant that are very successful, so we’re going to borrow ideas from those games and make sure that they make sense in the fighting game genre. For example, both of those games will sell cosmetics as opposed to power, so maybe that’s an approach we’ll take,” Cannon said.
EVO創始者キャノン兄弟が登壇！「『Project L』プロデューサー陣にきく 格闘ゲーム開発の哲学」
League of Legends puts a great deal of emphasis on its skins. While most free-to-play games have cosmetic items, League of Legends skins are used to establish entire alternate universes. They’re also interwoven into the game’s competitive scene, with world champions getting their own commemorative skins.
Skins in League of Legends can be unlocked in a variety of ways. Players have the ability to purchase them with a variety of in-game currencies, some of which are available by playing while others are purchased with real money. In 2024, the game also added a gacha mechanic named Sanctum that features exclusive, limited-edition skins.
Similar to characters, it’s uncertain whether Riot Games will pass up the established norm in the genre. Street Fighter 6 and many other fighting games have alternate costumes for characters. These typically have price tags attached, even if the games aren’t free-to-play.
Ahri Gameplay Trailer | 2XKO
2XKO is confirmed for a release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S consoles.
The early access period is exclusively available on PC, but the game remains slated for release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Beyond that, there’s no word on the 2XKO being available on other platforms.
Riot Games has yet to make any of its internally developed games available on Nintendo consoles. While Valorant is available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the game has not been officially confirmed for a Nintendo Switch 2 release. Leaks in 2024 suggested that Valorant was slated for a Switch release, but this has not yet materialized.
It’s unlikely that 2XKO will be playable on Steam Deck.
The game is confirmed to be using Riot Games’ anti-cheat software, Vanguard. Steam Decks run on Linux, which is not compatible with Valorant. This prevents League of Legends and Valorant from running on Steam Deck, and the same will likely be true for 2XKO.
2XKO has relatively high PC system requirements compared with other Riot Games titles. Here are the minimum specs, per the official website:
While this isn’t too bad relative to other recent PC titles, 2XKO is set to be more taxing on PCs than either League of Legends or Valorant. Riot Games has done extensive work throughout its history to make its games playable around the world. This has made its games playable on a broad assortment of underpowered PCs.
2XKO will still be playable on middling gaming PCs, but the game won’t be nearly as accessible as Riot Games fans are accustomed to.
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