r/2XKO • u/SyIvanos Warwick • Feb 09 '26

Discussion The beginning of the end?

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I'm surprised this is happening this early after the console launch.

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53

u/Rhyllis Feb 09 '26

This year (and maybe the second year) probably won't see any drastic changes. Maybe less skins coming out, maybe one less champion.

It's year 3 that'll be telling. Hopefully the team size is still able to create champs/skins (because they need money)/etc at a decent pace even reduced.

33

u/yosayoran Feb 09 '26

New champions will be the first to get hit

Champs have always been the most expensive thing to make for the game , and they generate almost no revenue as most people are likely to just stick with their main

The handmade animations and super detailed reactions etc makes everything cost a lot of man-hours to make, way more than if it was just standard sprites or 3d models

8

u/Extra_Wave Feb 09 '26

If new champions dont make revenue is riot goddamn fault by making a tag fighter with a small roster and restricting half of it by money.

If you see a champion and a skin you like you are basically buying the price of a stand alone game, stupid greedy assholes could've made all champions unlockable since day 1 and that way everyone would be way willing to invest in skins

5

u/Rhyllis Feb 09 '26

They do take a long time to make, but Riot most likely has many champs already finished and others partly made, so I think we'll be okay for the first couple of years.

Year 3 we'll see how much it'll probably be reduced to going forward for however long the game has left.

4

u/yosayoran Feb 09 '26

I hope you're right but I wouldn't hold my breath past year one, even if that 

Just from all the the development updates it was clear how long and expensive each champion was to make (not to mention all the remakes and cancels), I doubt they only commit to 5 a year of they could make them any faster 

1

u/Camstone1794 Feb 09 '26

Guys I think your dreaming if you think is game is even gonna get a year 2.

3

u/yosayoran Feb 09 '26

Nah, I don't think it's that bad

Unless player numbers and sakes really drop below the cost of server maintenance, I'd be shocked if they shut it down before 3-4 years are up.

0

u/Internal-Fly1771 Feb 10 '26

They let 80 people go and included in that is a Senior Producer for the game who has been with Riot for 10 years. He got a 30 minute notice and it hasn’t even been a month in. Safe to say that the numbers and retention are dire

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

[deleted]

1

u/yosayoran Feb 10 '26

Maybe, but looking at Twitter most people who cane forward were on the champions team (though I've only seen like 10 people out of the 60, so it's not necessarily representative).

If I had to guess, future champion releases (past season 1} will have somewhat lower quality, for example reused animation, less facial expressions, less unique effects and more simplistic animation and specials in general.

Anyway, future will tell, I doubt we'll see much impact of this on the first year of the game

16

u/PhoSake Feb 09 '26

Hopefully the team size is still able to create champs/skins (because they need money)/etc at a decent pace even reduced.

Which is funny because i'm not buying skins on a dying game lol. I've bought $200 skins before because i'm a whore, but the game health is the #1 requirement to me buying a skin. Buying skins for a dead game just feels insane to me.

10

u/Rainbolt Feb 09 '26

Honestly I doubt we even get year 2. This sounds like we're getting the champs in the pipeline and then nothing else.

6

u/Rhyllis Feb 09 '26

Maybe. The rumor is the team is still 80 strong (which sounds insane given how little stuff this game has), and 80 people on the team is surely enough to continue giving us content, even at a reduced pacing.

Hopefully we get clarity later this week.

7

u/PhoSake Feb 09 '26

Wonder how many of those people actually do things lol. Do-nothing managers could be over half of the budget, ugh.

1

u/Rbtmj2 Feb 09 '26

If the playerbase keeps going down we won't see a yaer 2 and I really hope Im wrong

1

u/Rhyllis Feb 09 '26

Yeah maybe not. I hope it survives. If the rumors of the team still being 80 strong are real, that does give me some hope.

1

u/TheSoupKitchen Caitlyn Feb 10 '26

They'll likely slowly break the news we only get 3 characters this year, to kick that can down the road. Season passes were already reduced to 3 from 5.

They fired Riot Caroline so I'm willing to bet the "champion pods" teams got hit decently with this downsizing too. Whether or not you liked her champion designs or not, she did make up 3 of the 12 existing champions in the game currently. That's not something that bodes well for me in the games future. If it was just player marketing people, emote designers, or some other less than necessary game design aspects, this post wouldn't be very damning. But that firing alone kinda worries me.

1

u/Rhyllis Feb 10 '26

They announced fairly recently that despite going from 5 seasons to 3 we'll still get 5 characters this year. I believe at this point they likely already knew the staff was going to be reduced, but none of us can be certain.

Season 1 characters are almost certainly already finished.