2XKO Will Save the Gaming Industry

I think 2XKO will save the gaming industry. And I'm dead serious. I think 2XKO will save the game industry. I know that this is a bold take. I know that many people would disagree that 2XKO will not save the game industry, but it's okay because I'm gonna highlight and explain how it will save the game industry from both the content and player experience perspective. Let's jump right in.

I am back with a back-to-back 2XKO post, because the first thing that a lot of people are going to say is that 2XKO will not save the game industry, but Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls will. In a way, yes, Marvel Tōkon's announcement during June's State of Play definetely brought the Marvel fighting game foundation back into the limelight. But not as a free-to-play title, but as a successor to the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise to become the new heart of the FGC set to release in 2026. They did host a tournament during the game's Closed Beta, and that's the point of this.

See, we don't consider one-time purchases or Battle Passes as predatory microtransactions. But there is one thing that is a form of predatory microtransactions, which is a gacha mechanic. Spotlight Pipes in Mario Kart Tour is an obvious example of predatory microtransactions that became a point of contention. It's like lootboxes, but uses pipes to give you a random item. A young boy assisted by his father sued Nintendo for implementing the gacha mechanic. It became a controversial piece to undermine player enjoyment and pressured players to pay money for Rubies, so Nintendo has removed it and replaced it with a normal shop that contains new and old content, including the ones players' don't own yet, and made Spotlight Pipes earnable for free, thus making monetization duller to attract existing and new players.

A gacha mechanic is not the only form of predatory monetizations, but pay-to-win scenarios as well. They have items that they had to pay real money to buy items that give the player an advantage over their opponent, creating an unfair advantage. This form can alienate players and it was done by Paladins with its introduction of the bloody Cards Unbound in OB64, which was removed to win back players. It is possible to remove elements that introduced aggressive monetization tactics from a free-to-play game. While yes, free-to-play games have microtransactions, but as long as they are fair and less exploitative, it won't alienate a lot of fans.

You must fight both the poor side of the player base that say free content and reasonable prices are the best things ever and nothing can ever put a paywall behind them to the rich side of the player base that would be delighted to pay money on everything. Grabbing the interests of both sides of the player base is an extremely difficult practice. And sadly, there is an indie developer that took a crack of developing their free-to-play fighting game, but landed in a very awkward spot that makes it worse than a gacha mechanic and pay-to-win scenarios.

After the release of Smash Ultimate, WB Games developed their free-to-play platform fighter with characters from Warner Bros' IPs, MultiVersus. So this game has made a brilliant entrance, being the renowned game on its time in Open Beta, ranging from winning the Best Fighting Game at the Game Awards to setting up its tournament at EVO 2022. However, as soon as the game has officially releaseed after hibernation, things have took a turn for the worse. The player base did not come close to the renowned Open Beta did. Warner Bros. struggled to maintain a renowned player base from the Open Beta and wasn't esports worthy like it was in Open Beta. How the game failed miserably is one possible explanation. And it's not shifting to Unreal Engine 5, releasing characters we didn't wish for like the Banana Guard or renaming Beetlejuice "Betelgeuse". No, the real source of MultiVersus' faiure and alienating a LOT of players is microtransactions at their predatory level.

When it comes to grinding, when MultiVersus relaunched, microtransactions were taken to the predatory level when they removed Gold, the game's free currency that is used to unlock characters, palettes and perks, to pressure players to pay money for Gleamium to unlock characters, palettes, lives and low in rarity time-limited skins like the Friday the 13th mask, a shark head, possession with dark energy from Trigon, summer outfits, being imbued with the cosmic energy and more. The Fighter and Perk currencies they replaced Gold with, none of them can unlock palettes or low rarity time-limited skins or earnable through grinding daily and weekly missions or finishing matches. They would do this based on what they learned in Open Beta.

When Season 4 of MultiVersus came out in November, the Fighter currency was removed in favor of Fighter Road to involve grinding enough XP to unlock characters. However, Fighter Road XP is not earnable through grinding daily and weekly missions or finishing matches. This has also created even more pay-to-progress scenarios. This practice exposed why Warner Bros. had to sunset the game after five Seasons and how it became a commercial failure because they lost money. During the game's full release, Player First Games has completely dropped the ball by taking microtransactions too far. That ball is the game's success in Open Beta.

I find it ironic that Mightykeef, a black comedian, would make an emotional skit to cover that, with Nintendo reacting to MultiVersus shutting down and to be honest, I expected that to drop because of the Harry Potter part and the, "I'm gonna need you to never do that **** again, my boy" line. Boy howdy, that one just... came out of left field just like what I saw in the Simpsons, but didn't use pal.

See, Harry Potter is not in the game and he never will be along with other characters I wished for like Godzilla, Daffy Duck, Furiosa and even Barbie, because since Warner Bros. is shifting their business to bringing their collaborations to Fortnite, generally meaning that the characters from their IPs are gonna be used as skins, including new Scooby-Doo! skins that came to Fortnitemares this year, and Player First Games is shut down, MultiVersus will never again see the light of day and these characters I wished for will be used as skins in Fortnite and other games. It's bad enough that Crash Team Rumble prematurely ceased active development after three seasons, but at least it's not sunset, though.

What is also funny to me is that when MultiVersus comes out, Nintendo became so jealous that Warner Bros. is trying to claim everything that they built just by beating 89 characters, which is the number of characters Smash Ultimate has, especially when it's multi-platform and has rollback netcode Smash Ultimate didn't have, to try to become the new lead company of a platform fighter. However, it has stopped at the same number of characters Brawl has being 35 characters and couldn't beat Smash Ultimate's 89-character roster. It fell short by 54 characters because the game had to be sunset. It's not even close to the number of characters Smash Ultimate has. As it turned out, it wasn't just MultiVersus that became a failed Smash clone, but also other Smash clones as well and none of them came even close to the renowned the Smash franchise did.

Even with microtransactions during full release, the game was not universally hated. Nevercake has posted an ad for the game. The decision to end all further support on the game was met with widespread disappointment and sadness, especially when they purchased the the third tier of the Founder's Pack that offers a number of character tickets that is overkill. In fact, for a lot of people, that was their favorite game and they made a petition to convince Warner Bros. to continue support on the game, but bring Gold back and phase out the Perk and Fighter currencies.

You can't put the game into the Beta phase with the free currency and replace it with new currencies that have limited ways to earn them and can't be used to buy low rarity skins at launch to provide predatory monetization tactics to alienate a lot of players. That's the only thing that has ruined what could've been a phenomenal crossover platform fighter like it was in the Beta that was better, especially when it's being multi-platform with seamless features outside the Nintendo line of consoles and having rollback netcode. Gold being the free currency is what made MultiVersus so phenomenal in the Beta.

When it comes to making a free-to-play fighting game, how do you develop a free-to-play fighting game that caters the best experience while also not alienating players? Well, let's take 2XKO as an example on how it became a success and how the devs of this game learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure.

2XKO is essentially a free-to-play League of Legends fighting game. Tag-oriented, duo play and SEGA vs. Capcom-style gameplay. In fact, it is arguably one of the games that I felt comfortable playing anytime soon on both PC and console and it's easy to recommend it to Deen and Noid for their Father and Son Beatdown of this game now that the game is open for everyone to download. Well, during Early Access on PC. The game is technically available for everyone, but they are looking at Seasons, ranked, content and competitive scenes and they're focusing on the work that takes to shift from the Alpha Lab playtests to a full-featured game on console before fully launching it.

It's so much fun to play that kids would stay home from school to play this game and the matches are fun to spectate, whether it's intro dialogues between Ahri and Yasuo, experiencing people disrespecting those who use pulse combos, a planned cadence of releasing five new Champs per year, finisher cosmetics, Teemo and Warwick being in the mix, Ultimate finishes, making quips about characters, Jinx's theme fitting well with the action, listening to Yasuo's theme and creating the synergy from Vi teaming up with her childhood sister Jinx after making her debut, courtesy of Arcane.

Not only the game's development has turned out well, but also hit a problem back in 2020 when they tested out early tag gameplay that they had to go back to the drawing board and update the game's art design, making characters veer from their MOBA counterparts to blend in well in a fighting game environment and produce fast-paced gameplay and cel shading used in Guilty Gear and other Arc titles that use cel shading.

Here's one thing that you didn't know. Did you know that Darius has no wrapping around his arms, Ahri's legs are thin, wears a purple rope around her waist and a necklace, and Ekko has dreads in their updated art style? I think the reasoning for the art style update is because the original art style based on League of Legends first seen in 2019 when 2XKO was Project L became slow-paced in a fighting game. That explains why Katarina had to be cut from the game undergoing design updates to make her blend well in a fighting game environment. But she's gonna make her debut as a post-launch character guaranteed.

They have been working on the game for six years since 2019. Their first demo at EVO 2023 turned out to be a hit with feedback from players kicking in back in 2023. It pretty much went well with Alpha Lab 1, the first invite-only at home playtest. Then Alpha Lab 2 came along to have drastic gameplay changes based on player feedback. While a smaller playtest, feedback was given to the team. Playtesting was then taken to the next level with Closed Beta being the final invite-only play window before the game is fully released with a focus on leaving the servers online for the foreseeable future in a way to warm things up. Invites were automatically sent to those who played in any of their Alpha Lab playtests.

After Closed Beta, the game has launched on PC first during Early Access. It marks the game being available for everyone to download, breaking the invite-only barrier on PC. Now, this is where you might say, "Come on, you already got an invite to Closed Beta. Why did you care about Early Access in the first place?" Well, to answer your question, Closed Beta was considered just a warmup. All of our progress we made during Closed Beta had to be reset in Early Access. It breaks the invite-only barrier on PC first so that the game would be available for everyone with things that are introduced to be looked at.

Also, after the announcement of Early Access, gameplay trailers and moveset showcase videos are also released. They are for characters who never received one in the first place. The official character art are also being released for every character in light of the game being available for free to the public with seasonal content.

But how Riot learned from MultiVersus' untapped potential, you ask? Well, they laser-focused in on what made Closed Beta so appealing. They taken that full potential and success from the game's Beta and amplified and multiplied it in Early Access and will continue that full potential when it launches on console instead of breaking it by implementing aggressive monetization mechanics. Bringing new ways to earn Credits can take that full potential from the Beta and make it shine on Early Access and beyond.

What I said above stated that again, Riot has laser-focused in on what made the Beta so appealing to learn from MultiVersus' commercial failure. And instead of fragmenting and borderline priortizing monetization, they polished and multiplied what made the Beta so appealing to a broader audience. New ways to earn Credits like combo trials would make it shine throughout Early Access and beyond, so by leaving the free currency alone, they honored the Beta with one butt to kick in Early Access and will continue that full potential when the game launches on console.

If you don't know what Credits is, I'll explain what it is. Credits is 2XKO's free currency that is used to unlock Champions, chromas, stages and avatar cosmetics and has all ways to earn them for free, like finishing matches in Casual and Ranked lobbies, completing the lessons in Tutorial and grinding daily and weekly missions. Riot has thought about the predatory monetization tactics Player First Games has implemented to produce pay-to-progress scenarios that alienated a lot of players during the game's full release and went the extra mile to improve how Credits are earned by adding new ways to earn them like completing combo trials.

Credits being the game's free currency is what made the Closed Beta so appealing. Without it, we would be often pressured to pay real money for premium currency, KO Coins, to unlock characters, chromas, stages and avatar cosmetics. The player base will be alienated and they would sunset the game prematurely. That's how MultiVersus became a commercial failure and why WB Games had to sunset it prematurely. It lives up to the idea of, "Hey, we learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure. We must leave our free currency alone so that players can be able to purchase characters, stages and other items with them."

Plus, to give you a small insight on how new Champions become available to purchase with Credits, starting in Season 1 when the game is fully launched, new Champions become available to unlock with 10,000 Credits once the first three weeks of each new Season is up. Same with the stages; new stages become available to unlock with 7,500 Credits from the get-go of a new Season. This tells us that Riot has learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure by simply leaving the Credits alone and adding new ways to earn them so that when 2XKO is fully released on PC and console, we can be able to unlock characters and stages with Credits, not through microtransactions. Grinding weekly and daily missions to earn Credits would speed up the process of unlocking every character and stage without ever being pressured to pay real money for KO Coins before a new Season launches. Same with the chromas for default skins.

Implying that this free practice is gonna make 2XKO so appealing, thinking about that one form of predatory monetization mechanics Player First Games put into MultiVersus to dishonor the Beta. And that one form of predatory microtransactions is removing the free currency and pressuring players to pay money for Gleamium to unlock characters, time-limited rare and uncommon skins and palettes to create pay-to-progress scenarios when none of the new currencies that replaced Gold with are earned through grinding weekly and daily missions or finishing matches or can be used to unlock rare and uncommon skins.

See, Riot didn't just leave the free currency alone. They also listened to the players' feedback during the course of the game's Beta. They also honored the trope that has been used a lot in today's media and the concept of the game's full potential so much that it became a core backbone of the FGC. They even went as far as supporting online and offline tournaments dedicated to 2XKO esports for the rest of 2025 through the First Impact program, planning to support more tournaments in 2026 and beyond, bringing Arcane skins to characters that are featured in Netflix's hit show to honor it and even making the game a good influence to Teamfight Tactics to have a 2XKO Coliseum.

While all of this sounds great, how did 2XKO perform in practice? Well, the game's Metacritic score has not yet been posted, so I'll give you an update regarding 2XKO's Metacritic in a future post.

But MultiVersus, on the other hand, did receive a Metacritic score of 75 out of 100, which is seemingly decent, but met with mixed reviews with those praising the combat and representation of Warner Bros.' IPs battling each other for supremacy and criticizing microtransactions being predatory, especially during full release.

With everything said and done, here's the main point I would like to make. There are some companies that try to figure out how to make a free-to-play live service fighting game that continues its success from the Beta. Warner Bros. made their free-to-play fighting game that is a platform fighter with their IPs battling each other. It became a success and achieved its full potential in the Beta. However, when the game was fully released, that full potential from the Beta was broken because they dishonored the Beta with removing the free currency in favor of new currencies in a way to priortize monetiation and ignoring players' feedback during the Beta, which became the leading downfall.

But thankfully, Riot has learned from this enigma. They made a free-to-play live service fighting game that continued its success from the Beta, by keeping the free currency and adding new ways to earn them and listening to the players' feedback, meaning that now, they have learned from MultiVersus' commercial failure.

Development and content choices to create future free-to-play fighting games, meaning that if and when a free-to-play live service platform fighter goes into production, they now know how to learn from MultiVersus' commercial failure and untapped potential. They can simply implement the free currency in the game from the get-go of the game's development to unlock characters and palettes, launch the game with it and leave it alone. They don't have to replace it with new currencies that can't be earned through finishing matches and grinding missions. The game's free currency is already done and how the Beta in MultiVersus was better.

Not only that. Riot has went the extra mile to make 2XKO worthy of unleashing its full potential in the FGC and in the competitive scene and opened up to limitless creativity, meaning that if other companies behind their free-to-play games like Hi-Rez, Blizzard or any other company, including indie devs, plan to take a crack of developing a free-to-play live service fighting game, they'll be able to learn from MultiVersus' commercial failure and not make microtransactions predatory so that their game would succeed. They can use 2XKO as a leading example of a commercially successful free-to-play live service fighting game still having that free currency implemented from the get-go.

In conclusion, I think 2XKO will literally save the gaming industry, by being a free-to-play live service fighting game that has the free currency from the Beta once the game launches on console. MultiVersus' commercial failure was caused by aggressive monetization practices that dishonored the Beta. It became a lesson learned by the other companies of the game industry. The first company that learned from it is Riot with the entry of 2XKO being a commercially successful fighting game that honored its Beta with leaving the free currency alone.

While all of this sounds great, there is a bit of a silver-lining to all this. If WB Games left the Gold currency alone and added new ways to earn them like grinding daily and weekly missions instead of making microtransactions predatory, then maybe MultiVersus wouldn't be sunset prematurely.