Riot co-founder teases a mysterious 2XKO solution to one of the fighting game genre’s biggest problems

Marc Merrill has hinted towards something exciting in 2XKO, that would appear to tackle one of the biggest problems in the fighting game genre. That problem being, how to onboard eager newbies into fighting games, which have gained somewhat of a reputation for being arduous to get into.

This comes from an interview with Merrill on Game File. In this article, journalist Stephen Totilo asks the Riot co-founder about the upcoming fighting game. While he sidstepped a question about a release date, he was willing to hint towards innovations towards the game’s lobby system, as well as its potential for community building.

“We know a lot of the FGC veterans and incredible pros, as an example, they want the next generation to come in […] and we think we’re bringing some solutions to bear that will hopefully enable some of that.” According to Totilo, Merill is keen to offer a game that’s “tailored for veterens to mentor new players”.

The act of getting new players involved has proven a tricky one. We’ve all been there, egging our friend on to download the latest Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat only to see them overwhelmed by the amount of training they have to do. Outside of 2XKO, we’ve seen community-driven events like the Sajam Slam attempt to show the joy of this learning process through inviting influencers of various skill levels to hop in and battle it out. For Riot’s part, the game’s 2v2 format certainly encourages experienced players to play directly with their lesser-skilled friends, rather than the traditional over-the-shoulder coaching that has become the norm.

Merrill also mentioned something interesting regarding launch when poked for more info on a release date by Totilo. Merrill states: “There’s also the question of what exactly is launch,” which on its own may not stand out as especailly intriguing. But, combine this with a line later in the piece: “but Merrill believes that a focus on live service support can help Riot’s game stand out.” It begs the question, what exactly will 2XKO’s launch look like?

As of writing we don’t know! We know from Alpha Lab that the foundation appears to be an experience focused around the online lobby system, with a collection of just under 10 characters to play with at the moment. Will this plus a few extra characters make up the release package, or will there be more on offer when the game actually comes out? Well, with a new update on the game’s devlopment coming at some point this month, maybe this is something we’ll learn more about soon.

If you want to read more about Merrill’s thoughts about 2XKO and more, including Riot’s in-development MMO, you can subscribe to the Game File newsletter. There’s way more in there than we’ve mentioned here, and it’s a good read!