Riot Games, the company behind MOBA League of Legends (2011) and tactical shooter VALORANT (2020) was revealed to have canceled a project inspired by Smash Bros Melee. In the wake of 2XKO, Riot’s other main fighting game similar to Street Fighter and Guilty Gear: Strive, this cancellation is one of many projects Riot scrapped in their R&D and indie forge due to budget cuts. Budget cuts also led to layoffs earlier in the beginning of 2024.
The project, code named Pool Party after the League of Legends skinline, was intended to branch into the niche of competitive fighting games (specifically, those in the Melee scene) as well as be a part of an internal initiative to expand the Runeterra / League of Legends IP.
Riot has attempted to expand their brand and IP into different game genres independent of their biggest title League – this roster includes an MMO, board games, and roguelikes. Despite trying to delve into the different niches of the fighting game community, only 2XKO seems to remain. While 2XKO is not shipped and released yet, Riot is running internal playtesting and will open up at-home Alpha playtesting, which runs from August 8th to August 19th.
Internal information speculates to have had around 70 employees on the Pool Party project itself – some have been directly offered internal transfer, while others have had to apply using an internal transfer job board. A small amount have to find other opportunities in the threat of redundancy.