2XKO is Ceasing Active Development and I'm NOT Happy

It has come to my attention that apparently, 2XKO is dead. No, no, no, what I meant is that there will be no more content and is ceasing active development in December with the intention of leaving the servers online indefinetely. There's a lot to talk about, so... *sigh* let's jump right in...

I'm back with a brand new post that has some bad and heartbreaking news. So, with Marvel Tokon and SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level out, everyone's been pushing for them to recieve support for years to come, including Riot Games' League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO.

At the beginning, it was Project L, until years later, it was renamed to 2XKO. During the first Alpha Lab, feedback went all over the place. The second Alpha Lab came in to be a smaller playtest. Closed Beta opened the gates to giving anyone the the game. Early Access made the game downloadable. After the game launched on console, the half of the 2XKO team laid off and we got news that Akali and Senna are confirmed. The Climb became fun to play. I did a couple of rounds. It is kind of akin to MultiVersus' Rifts system.

Early buzz was established when the game came out on console, but that is not enough to establish insufficient player engagement, so half of the team was laid off. I have been waiting for Season 3 news and guess what? The news popped up stating that 2XKO is going to cease active development in December after one year since launch, but servers will remain online for the foreseeable future.

*sigh* Great, just great. Look, instead of getting angry, I gotta stay in a Buena Vista mood while monologuing about how very disappointed I am about this.

So, the game launched on consoles in January 20th. Weeks later, half of the 2XKO team was laid off. The article stated that they couldn't sustain player engagement. They evaluated the game's player base, not just revenue. Despite major updates, the player base remains flat and couldn't reach enough players to have sufficient player engagement. That explains why the Duo Finder took too long to find me a partner. It is bad enough that MultiVersus died after not having a sustainable player base. Overwatch literally established an overkill player engagement after dropping the 2 and keeping the game free-to-play.

Other than Vi and Jinx in their Arcane model, Riot ceasing active development on 2XKO comes with them bringing League of Legends characters to Fortnite to be used as skins, starting with Ahri. Literally, just one year after launch. I didn't want the game to cease active development. I want it to continue active development despite insufficient player engagement, especially when there are literally just a lot of characters just begging to be in the roster. Even Diaphone is quitting his job to play this game in light of the news and I don't blame him. The console sneak peek video has made 9.8 million views on YouTube. This should've reflected as player engagement.

According to the viewer count on Twitch, 2XKO somehow sits on a meager 26 viewers. The numbers tell us exactly why 2XKO is ceasing active development.

Overwatch has 61.5K viewers. The numbers show that Overwatch remains having an overkill player retention.

And Marvel Rivals has 16.8K viewers. It is not as overkill as Overwatch, but nonetheless, 16.8K viewers is a good amount if you ask me.

If we compare player engagement to let's say looking at a fictional woman's legs. Overwatch's player retention is looking at Emma Frost's legs, and 2XKO's player retention is looking at... Palamena's legs. Can you even believe the whiplash reaction that it got? It's one of the perfect side-by-side comparisons of a brilliant player retention and a dull player retention. Blizzard has literally nailed the grand slam with Overwatch. They unlocked all current and future characters by default, kept the game free-to-play after dropping the 2 and focused on the community rather than the metrics. This actually exposed the main reason why 2XKO flopped because Riot relied on profit-driven choices over the community according to Ludwig's words.

I thought that 2XKO has changed everything that it is on par with the Alpha Lab playtests, but I was apparently wrong. It sucks to see it end active development after a year since launch. This posed an issue with modern fighting games. The PC versions of them have performance issues and they have launch snags like Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game's missing Ranked and Switch performance issues and the PC version of Marvel Tokon having the Sony DRM that is the source of backlash.

I made a post on X sharing my feelings about how disappointed I am about 2XKO ceasing active development due to low player engagement. Honestly, if 2XKO was a passion project, they could just continue active development for years to come no matter the player engagement and metrics.

Final SEGA side:

Ahri
Blitzcrank
Caitlyn
Ekko
Jinx
Samira
Teemo
Vi
Yasuo

Final Capcom side:

Akali
Braum
Darius
Illaoi
Lux
Senna
Thresh
Warwick

Final key points:

Ahri on the SEGA side = NiGHTS
Blitzcrank on the SEGA side = Vectorman
Caitlyn on the SEGA side = Valkyria Chronicles
Ekko on the SEGA side = Pulseman
Jinx on the SEGA side = Jet Set Radio
Samira on the SEGA side = Valkyria Chronicles
Vi on the SEGA side = Jet Set Radio
Yasuo on the SEGA side = Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo
Akali on the Capcom side = Power Stone
Darius on the Capcom side = Knights of the Round
Lux on the Capcom side = Star Gladiator
Senna on the Capcom side = Devil May Cry
Thresh on the Capcom side = Ghosts n' Goblins
Warwick on the Capcom side = Darkstalkers

Here are the final standings for the SEGA and Capcom sides and the key points. All of this have been finalized as 2XKO is going to cease active development in December because of the fact that the game couldn't have a sufficient player engagement. It has been a Maggie and the Ferocious Beast mess of things that weren't even half-baked because 2XKO not having a sufficient player engagement contributes to sunsetting active development despite early buzz. It has been the end of the road for what could've been a phenomenal League of Legends fighting game. For that, I am scrapping sequels to the post that talks about the wanted future characters.

My condolences and I'm sorry to the team that struggled to maintain player engagement of this game they pour their hearts and souls into and to Diaphone quitting his job. It sucks to end like this. I wish them the best of luck finding ways to come back stronger for the next genre. I have a follow up post where I pinpoint the problems that caused 2XKO to have a low player engagement at launch and what solutions that should've had been done. If the post is up, you can click the link below.

-Post coming soon-

Now, does it sting that we found out that 2XKO is ceasing active development due to low player retention? Yes, it does. Only a lot. However, there is another free-to-play fighting game that launched this year, SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. But luckily, 4CYDE Studios has confirmed that SEGA vs. Capcom is essentially a non-profit passion project to never cease active development as they have a lot and I mean a LOT of characters, character themes and everything else straight up confirmed in their first livestream. You can click the link to the post where I did a deep dive into the situation.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2026/07/new-sega-vs-capcom-info-revealed.html

Wanted 2XKO Characters for Years 2-5

With Lux and Samira on their way, I am going to share the wanted posters for future 2XKO characters for 2027-2030 and my wish list of 2027 characters I have made. You know, instead of saying 2027-2030, I'm gonna say Years 2-5. I think you can connect the dots. Before I share them, let me make myself clear that the wanted posters don't confirm that the characters are coming to 2XKO. They represent characters I want. Now, let's get to the nitty-gritty of sharing the wanted posters.

Originally, I was supposed to have 25 wanted posters, but due to the things in the background referencing non-playable characters in stages and non-playable characters in the background of certain stages, there are now 30 wanted posters. But the Years 2-5 timeframe remains. How this works is that if one of the wanted characters is announced, I cross them out. Simple as that. I won't talk about all of them, but I'll be talking about the characters that I found interesting while picking the characters for my Year 2 wish list.

First off, I have to talk about the elephant in the room, Katarina. I put her as the most wanted character because she was Thanos-snapped from the game's earlier stages of development. To fix this, Arucelli submitted Katarina's concept art to the designers for her redesign stage. I want to add her to my Year 2 wish list, but I'll be let down again if she is not one of the Year 2 characters, so to play it safe, I think I'll leave her out of my Year 2 wish list. You know me. I always expect Katarina to be materalized on every trailer and get let down every single time. It is indeed synonymous to anyone always expecting Sora from Kingdom Hearts on every Smash reveal trailer and getting let down until he is materialized as the final DLC in Smash Ultimate.

But something hit me. Remember the Luigi trailer for SSF2 Beta? He was confirmed because they realized that they were one character short of the N64 cast. But what does the SSF2 Luigi trailer have anything to do with Katarina?

Well, here's a look at the list of confirmed characters so far in the Wiki. The list currently has 17 characters, but Lux and Samira are not out yet. That's why you're seeing the ??? to be replaced by a final archetype once it has been revealed on the week when their full trailers drop. If they realized that the list of characters is missing a character that starts with a K after Lux was revealed, there is evidence that Katarina could coincide with Samira's launch when she is teased at the end of the Samira trailer since they are Noxians. I think we can see our red-haired Noxian coincide with our stylish Noxian daredevil, which contributes to her being a Dante-like, courtesy of the buzz in 2XKO Pools at Evo. I'm not confirming anything, just saying it's a possibility.

Katarina was cut from the game in its earlier stages of development and she couldn't be materialized in the first place, but she will be, thanks to Arucelli making her a concept art and submitting it to the developers back in October. That's why I put her as the most wanted character. We want our red-headed Noxian to be materialized and it's something I'll be chasing for until she is materialized. If Katarina is shadow-dropped as the extra 7th Year 1 character to coincide with Samira, an extra update will be made.

Leona is gonna be peak in 2XKO with her giant shield, sword and starfire imbued powers. I'm not talking about a DC heroine. However, she could use Wonder Woman's playbook in Injustice. In fact, her picture is shown on the League of Legends homepage when you clicked on the Tank symbol, meaning that the Radiant Dawn is likely. For that, Leona deserves a guaranteed spot in my Year 2 wish list and she is likely to be a Bruiser. I love to see Leona make her way into 2XKO in some way, shape or form. She is, in fact, in the background of Kiramman Yacht donning her Pool Party skin just waiting to be playable.

Now, since Leona is a Targon character, she will come with a Targon-themed stage, like how Lux will come with a Demacia-themed stage at launch and Senna came with a Runeterra-themed stage, Abandoned Armory. However, Thresh launched, but didn't launch with a Shadow Isles-themed stage since it is coming out at the start of Season 3.

The boy and yeti wombo combo of the Freljord can really do well in a fighting game by being a Ferra/Torr-like to make Nunu stand or sit on Willump throughout the match. I know I have already talked about this in the past, but there is one thing I actually didn't not cover. It's how S1 and S2 specials would work for Nunu and Willump. S1 specials would focus on Willump while S2 specials would focus on Nunu. This can definetely work in 2XKO. It may be quite a balancing act.

See, Ferr/Torr's inclusion in Mortal Kombat X inspired other fighting games to have a small character and a big character wombo combo. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite had Rocket Raccoon and Groot and Smash Ultimate had Banjo-Kazooie. So what will 2XKO answer with? Nunu and Willump.

Evo 2026 had a booth that sells Jayce cards at the 2XKO booth. That didn't confirm Jayce, and it's a good thing because they are done with Arcane characters for now because if they added another Arcane character this year, it'll defeat the purpose, so he'll probably come either in Year 2, 3, 4 or 5. Let's get to the main meat of how Jayce would perform in 2XKO.

I have talked about him, but there is one thing I did not talk about. That is his S1 and S2 specials. Since Jayce's hammer can shoot magic, S2 specials would focus on shooting magic out of his hammer while S1 specials would focus on physical hammer attacks, making him a All-Rounder. I do want to see Jayce in 2XKO, but his cards sold at the booth didn't even mean he's confirmed yet and they are done with Arcane characters for now. But do not worry, he will be at some point. This pitch to how Jayce performs in 2XKO is obvious.

• S1 specials to involve physical hammer attacks
• S2 specials to shoot magic from hammer

In the past, I have talked about Gangplank, but I did not talk about are his S1 and S2 specials, so I'm gonna highlight them now. Gangplank is known for having his cutlass, pistol and powder keg in his arsenal, so like how Teemo shoots his slingshot with S1 and places mushrooms with S1, Gangplank would shoot his pistol with S1 and place powder kegs with S2, classifying him a Trap character. What about Trial by Fire? Is it gonna be scrapped? No, of course not! Trial by Fire would come with a gauge that fills up from his cutlass attacks. Land a certain number of attacks and Trial by Fire would be activated for the remainder of the match. My pitch to how Gangplank would perform in 2XKO makes it clear.

• Normals to involve cutlass attacks
• S1 specials to shoot his pistol
• S2 specials to place powder kegs
• Trial by Fire to activate after landing a certain number of cutlass attacks

I have already talked about the red-haired pirate in the past, but there's something in regards to Miss Fortune to get off my chest. If Miss Fortune is revealed and her trailer drops, a teaser for Gangplank could be experienced at the end of the trailer to result in both Miss Fortune and Gangplank launching on the same day to honor the lore surrounding Miss Fortune taking Gangplank down, like how Senna and Thresh's simultaneous launch honored the lore behind Senna breaking out of Thresh's lantern to gain powers of the Black Mist's dark juju. I decided to put both Miss Fortune and Gangplank on my Year 2 wish list. It's not a guaranteed confirmation. It's a guess.

I mean, you got to admit, there are literally two Bilgewater-themed stages. Miss Fortune needs to be one of the Year 2 characters because of the tavern in Bilgewater, right? She is literally sitting right there in the background of Kiramman Yacht in her Pool Party skin with Leona just itching to be playable!

X's Grok written some information about me explaining how Sona would play in 2XKO, so I decided to lean more into her. If you don't know how Sona would perform in 2XKO, let me give you an example. Let's take Ulala from Space Channel 5. Ulala is essentially straight up confirmed to be a playable character in SEGA vs. Capcom, courtesy of FaRe'N'HiTe. A music based character with musical sounds that occur when landing hits. It's safe to say that Sona is likely, not certainly, likely to be the Ulala of 2XKO with sounds of landing hits played from her etwahl and musical moves that can give matches a lot of flair it needs and have a new archetype.

I know I said that Lucian is likely to be the 5th Year 1 character because of Senna. Well, it's not the case. See, what is really cool is that like how Miss Fortune could be a Noel Vermillion-like, it's highly likely that Lucian will be a Star-Lord-like in 2XKO since we are getting a Dante-like being Samira and that's the buzz I have been hearing when I was watching 2XKO Pools at Evo 2026. Now, because we have Senna and his lore mentioning Thresh slaying his wife, he earns a guaranteed spot in my Year 2 wish list, indicating that he is likely, not certainly, likely to debut to 2XKO as his wife did.

When Thresh makes his way into 2XKO, he became our first full-fledged villain to ever make it, so I think it's time we get another villain in the roster, and that is Veigar. The Tiny Master of Evil is gonna be peak with his dark magic. In fact, I like to see Veigar in 2XKO in some way, shape or form. S1 specials focus on his wand and S2 specials focus on using his right claw, which just might work.

Ashe will not be the only bow and arrow character I want in 2XKO because Vayne is the second bow and arrow character I also wish for. I have explained how Ashe would perform in 2XKO by having the same treatment as Caitlyn with the kicking, S1 to fire, cartwheel kick and fluid combos. However, Vayne would be different story because she has a wrist crossbow and a heavy crossbow, which can work in the specials department, so here's how the Night Hunter would perform in 2XKO.

Vayne's S1 specials would be for her wrist crossbow while her S2 specials would be for her heavy crossbow. While yes, it can be done because Vayne is a Marksman and she can have fluid combos accompanied by her punches and kicks, kind of like MvC3 Jill Valentine, who has fluid combos and it's something that Vayne would have. But her combos are gonna be more fluid and faster than Caitlyn's.

What is really cool is that like how Samira is classified as a Dante-like, Vayne could be classified as a Bayonetta-like since she is a Night Hunter. I have talked about this in the SEGA vs. Capcom post. Picture this, a 2XKO character that is a combination of MvC3 Jill Valentine and Bayonetta accompanied by fluid combos and being one with the night.

Riot said that they are done with Arcane characters for now. But that doesn't mean no more Arcane characters to come to the roster and Viktor is among them. Since selling Jayce cards at the booth didn't mean his confirmation at the time, decided to put Viktor in my Year 2 wish list. He will launch with an Arcane skin like others and is earned through purchasing the Ultra tier of the Battle Pass. I am choosing one Arcane character for my Year 2 wish list, which is Viktor.

With Luxanna Crownguard on her way to 2XKO as the first Demacia character, her brother, Garen Crownguard, is highly likely to come to 2XKO as his sister did and will be an All-Rounder, to bring in the might in 2XKO, something that Darius would do. It's a possibility for Garen to be in the 2XKO roster and have intro dialogues with his sister.

And then, something hit me. I went to Katarina's bio to look at the list of characters she is related to. And can you guess who is on the list of characters Katarina is related to? Garen. Huh, unreal.

I did talk about how the Dark Child would perform in 2XKO in the past. Talked about that Tibbers would be present throughout the match for S2 specials that would be for Tibbers to classify Annie a Carl Clover-like. However, after some thought, decided to change that.

Annie being a full-fledged Carl Clover-like will not work in 2XKO, so we have think her performance in League of Legends where Annie is alone and make her a partial Carl Clover-like. What do I mean by that? Annie would summon Tibbers with neutral S2, Tibbers would move when holding S2 and pressing S2 again while Tibbers is present makes Tibbers attack and is influenced by any direction and would disappear immediately. This is gonna classify her a Strategist like Thresh.

The pitch to how Annie performs in 2XKO sums it up with the bullet points.

• S1 specials for Annie herself
• S2 specials for Tibbers
• Pressing S2 summons Tibbers
• While Tibbers is present, pressing S2 and any direction makes Tibbers attack and holding S2 makes Tibbers move
• The above points classify Annie as a Strategist

Here is my 2XKO Year 2 wish list containing Leona, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Gangplank, Garen and Viktor. I wanted to have five characters in my Year 2 wish list, but in case if Riot decides to release six characters per year, I decided to put in six characters. I wanted to put an Ionian up there, but I had to choose the characters that are highly likely to debut.

For context, I put Miss Fortune and Gangplank next to each other because since they launched Senna and Thresh simultaneously to honor the lore surrounding the part where Senna breaks out of Thresh's lantern to gain dark juju powers of the Black Mist, they could launch Miss Fortune and Gangplank simultaneously to honor League of Legends' Bilgewater lore surrounding the part where Gangplank becomes a ghost after Miss Fortune killed him. I think this calls for a possibility of a match that has Senna and Miss Fortune against Thresh and Gangplank that is a battle of the sexes match. Pretty cool to experience that in 2XKO, huh?

You think I'll stop at showing you my Year 2 wish list? Well, think again because I also have my Year 3 wish list containing Ashe, Annie, Lee Sin, Kayle, Nunu and Willump and Jayce.

As I said before, the wanted posters don't confirm what characters are confirmed and the ones in my Year 2 and Year 3 wish lists are hypothetical. However, there is one thing I can confirm. One that is obvious is that with Senna out, Lux on her way and the Demacia-themed stage having a statue of Kayle in the background, Garen, Lucian and Kayle now have a high likelihood because of it. Just hone in on the pieces of evidence for context.

This is just part one in regards to the wanted characters for Years 2-5. Expect sequels to this post. If the sequels are up, you can click the links to them below.

-Part 2 releases when all Year 2 characters have been revealed-
-Part 3 releases when all Year 3 characters have been revealed-
-Part 4 releases when all Year 4 characters have been revealed-
-Part 5 releases when all Year 5 characters have been revealed-

Joe's Monologues - 8/16/26

I'm back with a brand new Joe's Monologues that I felt passionate about doing. We are in the second half of 2026 and approaching autumn, the time when everything cools down and the forests change their color of the leaves to yellow and orange and they fall down to the ground on the way to winter. Let's get into the post.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Let's kick it off with talking about something I did not do during my main playthrough on Bug Fables. On stream, I had to do something that I haven't done on my main playthrough in the first place. That is befriending Chompy. It is an optional companion not part of the main story, but it's a side quest. On stream, I have befriended Chompy and got the Tardigrade Shield. These are the two things I have not covered in my main playthrough. If I have befriended Chompy and acquired the Tardigrade Shield in the first place, then maybe I wouldn't have any problem beating the Everlasting King.

I am on the verge of uploading the rest of my Bug Fables Let's Play and I am closer to uploading every one of them. I also have planned to record and upload shorts in regards to this game on my gaming channel where gameplay shorts are being uploaded on it. I have uploaded one so far, but there are a lot more I have planned. Also, I'm about to upload a video that you'll never believe... 

As a reward for beating the game a while back, I have submitted my logo request for this game to Broken Saw. Guess what? My request has been fulfilled. Let's take a look at the video covering the logos.

SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level:

4CYDE Studios has released their fangame and I am amazed by all of their work they have done. But it was a terrible release because there are a few bugs like the one bug where Sakura Shinguji would not flinch when taking damage, and summon her mech like crazy. I have captured all of that and uploaded a short covering that on my gaming channel. Upon upload, it went viral despite not having my mic on. Thankfully, the bug has been fixed as they pushed out a hotfix before working on the next update that is certainly to have two new characters as you're seeing the slots with a question mark on it on the character select screen to indicate that they are coming soon.

Since Beat temporarily replaces Akira Yuki, it's likely that he's gonna return to the game in the next major update. The one on the Capcom side is unknown. It is only a matter of time before Season 1 gets into its post-Alpha glory. That's the Alpha phase they were referring to.

As you beat Arcade Mode, "To Be Continued..." appears. But what does it apply to? What does that exactly mean? Well, the game currently has 10 characters and will have more characters to come during the course of Season 1.

Here are the voice actors that voiced the respective characters. On the list, there are 12 of them. But something's not right. If we look at the bottom of the SEGA side of the cast, we can see that Sapphire is being credited for voicing Honey from Fighting Vipers, yet she is not even in the game yet. Why is it on there?

Well, a while back, 4CYDE Studios was looking for a voice actress to voice Honey for the main menu screen. Sapphire applied to be Honey's voice actress for the main menu screen. That's why it's on there. Ladies and gentlemen, we might be experiencing an indication that Honey from Fighting Vipers is confirmed to also be a playable character, which has me very excited for this.

Update Regarding Sony Ending Discs:

After Sony made and update that they are going to stop producing PlayStation discs for games that release in 2028 and onwards, it was met with record backlash, with the Change.org petition having over 500,000 signatures, the planned blackout boycott and multiple lawsuits. Then they posted after six days with the fighting stick, ignoring backlash like they are going to forget about the backlash-worthy announcement they made. The lawsuit against Sony is going strong. Even Stop Killing Games is joining the rebellion against Sony's all-digital future. However, the CFO said that there is a majority of digital purchases in Q1 of this and their decision is final.

However, a former Square Enix executive named Jacob Navok said that PlayStation culling discs is gonna make the PlayStation Store cheaper. Wait, what? I actually agree with this, but what's the point of people getting angry at Sony's decision to kill discs if it's gonna make the digital store cheaper?

What am I Going to Do Next:

What am I doing next? Well, there's an indie game that I am planning a Let's Play series on, which I can't reveal yet. There's a post that contains wanted posters for future 2XKO characters in the works and it's what I'll probably post next. There's also a post in the works that I want get something off my chest. I tied up most loose ends for the 2XKO livestream to couple with the Sonic Racing CrossWorlds livestream and put $30 on hold for when I get paid next month to buy Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls on Steam and have my initial team of Magik, Star-Lord, Ms. Marvel and Green Goblin in the full game. The regular story is that I made Magik as leader of the team and the truth lies a little more than that. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Conclusion:

Well, this one has a lot to go through. Before I end this post, I am going to share what am I gonna do when Sony culls discs for games releasing in 2028. After hearing from the former Square Enix executive stated that Sony ending discs in 2028 is gonna make digital purchases affordable, I am coming to a decision. I am remaining as a PlayStation fan. But on one condition. Sony must follow Xbox's footsteps by having a disc-to-digital feature. It's the only way to win back players.

4CYDE Studios' NEW Game in the Works

As SEGA vs. Capcom's full-fledged launch is tomorrow, today, 4CYDE Studios has launched a website. We know that they have SEGA vs. Capcom in there, but they also have another project in the works. Let's jump right in.

Today, we're gonna talk about the official 4CYDE Studios website. That's right. 4CYDE Studios.

Here is the official header for the official 4CYDE Studios website with the "We create 4 U" slogan and the metal thing that moves with your cursor.

If you look closer, it shows that there are two games deployed and a number of players that refer to those who signed up so far. But how there are two games in there?

Here are the two games deployed so far. They are SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level and the untitled new game that is in the works.

Let's take a look at the mystery game's hub.

The picture that has the PS4 controller has the words "Coming Soon," indicating the untitled game is not yet revealed.

An untitled new game has some firm information. It is hinted as a fighting game to use the Ikemen GO engine and comes out in 2028 for PC and Mac.

It turns out that the untitled new game will also be Linux and Steam. SEGA vs. Capcom is also coming to the next two platforms.

Ladies and gentlemen, we might be looking at a potential new fighing game being in the works and I am very excited. I have to make this post because they have a new fighting game. SEGA vs. Capcom's full-fledged launch is tomorrow, so get ready for the next level, everyone. To download SEGA vs. Capcom and the untitled game and have access to them and their new patch releases, you can do so via the official 4CYDE Studios website and you will need to have a gamer account. Here's the link below.

https://4cydestudios.com/

Midway Was Great to the Gaming Industry

It has occured to me that Midway Games, the defunct Chicago video game company that was behind the iconic franchises. Then the majority of their assets were swept away by Warner Bros., including Mortal Kombat. They were great to the gaming industry for years prior to the date when they went defunct. Let's jump right in.

I'm back with a story post. So, Midway Games was an American game company in Chicago. However, they weren't always known for producing video games. As Midway Manufacturing in 1958, they were an independent manufacturer of amusement equipment founded by two people, Henry Ross and Marcine Wolverton. They started out as a developer of arcade games and made an alliance with Taito and Namco for distribution. When Bally came along to consolidate with Midway Manufacturing after buying them, Midway Manufacturing was renamed to Bally Midway to produce pinball machines.

Pinball machines were loved by many fans whose forte was amusement. That's where Williams Electronics came in to purchase Bally Midway. So far, pinball has been a most popular amusement back in the old days when arcade games were first invented and as kids, we insert coins into machines. Midway has produced arcade games by Williams and Atari, such as Robotron: 2084, Smash TV, Joust, Defender, Gauntlet and the Rush series. The games in particular became well-liked by many. Williams decided to offer its video game rights to Midway and was given the pinball rights in return. This caused Midway to stop using the Bally Midway label and live a life on their own.

As time went on, Midway knew that they can no longer bear the influence of WMS and Bally since they were working independently. It became a lucid dream for the company to become full-fledged. As a full-fledged company, Midway has teamed up with Acclaim Entertainment, who earned the home console rights to arcade titles by Williams and Midway, but led to a refusal clause. One person went on to say that they were working on arcade games with Williams and Atari. Midway wouldn't agree to Acclaim's decision because of the refusal clause in any of their arcade games. There it was that Acclaim decided to port the first Mortal Kombat to home consoles.

However, the move sparked controversy that it lead to 1992-1993 senate hearings on violent video games held by Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl and the establishment of the ESRB. It has been a bone of contention surrounding video game violence since the backlash about porting the first Mortal Kombat to home consoles, so whoever did this, paid the price. Acclaim did not own Mortal Kombat. They helped Midway publish it to home consoles. That was before Midway renamed themselves to Midway Manufacturing to Midway Games, Inc. and Williams subsequently spun off the rest of the interest in Midway to its shareholders to make Midway the independent company for the first time in almost 30 years. Midway now has the power to work independently from Williams to have a focus on home video games.

During Midway's focus on home video games, they became a full-fledged video game company to produce games released on consoles that have 3D graphics. In the case of arcade sports games, Midway was responsible of NFL Blitz, NBA Ballers, MLB Slugfest and NHL Hitz under the Midway Sports name. This is where you might argue and say that NFL Blitz was released on the 5th generation consoles, so what am I talking about? While it is true, the first NFL Blitz was released on the 5th generation consoles. And when we get to the next era of gaming, MLB Slugfest, NHL Hitz, RedCard and NBA Ballers came in to join Blitz.

And as we get to the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, Midway has taken NFL Blitz to the next level with Blitz: The League, which my brother and I played together on the PS3. I pretty much loved it. Unlike its predecessors, the game was rated M due to graphic violence, drug use and explicit use of profanity. None of them are suitable for children under 17. That contributed to its ban in Australia because of drugs depicted as incentives. These factors show that this is definetely NOT a nice game for children because of explicit swearing and graphic violence in it.

Midway also had compilations of their arcade games with the entry of Midway Arcade Treasures for the 6th generation consoles because that's what they thought they did with Williams and Bally. While Mortal Kombat is nuanced, the golden age of the series is from the first Mortal Kombat to the fourth game that introduced a 3D space. This allowed Midway to have a trilogy of games that take place in the 3D space released on the PS2, GameCube and Xbox and introduced switching between three fighting styles and earning color-coded coins. But Midway could not understand that.

In 2006 and 2007, Midway lost a further $77 million and $100 million on sales of $166 million and $157 million. Midway just couldn't figure out what they were doing and even though they teamed up with Warner Bros., they still struggled with maintaining their revenue. And even in the case of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, planned DLC was scrapped due to Midway's financial troubles. This allowed them to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and subsequently sell most of their assets to Warner Bros. Games with the intention of them to purchase the Midway Games trademark.

The key takeaway is that Midway started out as an independent manufacturer for amusement equipment to develop arcade games with several companies and pinball machines. When became a focus to make games for home consoles, Midway shown their perseverance as a great company to the gaming industry.

This is where we get to something really exciting. Midway has been a nostalgic company that lasted and ceased operations on the 7th generation era of gaming. For the PlayStation Plus Premium news, this month's lineup came with a bombshell regarding wanting to play games that are produced by Midway Games.

Psi-Ops: the Mindgate Conspiracy is now available on classics catalog for the PS4 and PS5, so when you visit the game's hub, you'll see the "Warner Bros. Interactive" label, making it the first Midway game to ever come to the catalog. The label had to be shown because Warner Bros. Interactive owned most of Midway's assets, bought the company out and purchased the Midway trademark and used it to make most of the franchises be published under the WB Games name. The game was left off in a cliffhanger and a sequel was supposed to resolve it, but despite positive reviews, it never came into fruition due to the Mindgate Conspiracy's poor sales. If Warner Bros. plans to remaster this game to hit fans right in the heart, maybe they can develop the sequel if the remaster is sold well.

So, a precedent has spoken and been set. If a Midway title like Psi-Ops could make it to the classics catalog, then other Midway titles like Rampage, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Area 51, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Arcade Treasures, NFL Blitz and a lot more now have more of a chance since hubs for future Midway titles will carry the Warner Bros. Interactive label. This doesn't apply to PlayStation Plus Premium. This also applies to Nintendo Switch Online's GBA, N64 and GameCube catalogs. Neither of them hadn't got a Midway game yet, but they will have one at some point.

And that is my story about Chicago's video game company and how it became a great company to the game industry with news in regards to the classics catalog having a game by Midway. While I am sad that Midway had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after financial difficulties, they were not the first nor the only company to actually file for bankruptcy in the 2000s.

The first company that filed for bankruptcy in the 2000s was the 3DO Company. They declared bankruptcy after they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to their games' poor sales, but nobody purchased the 3DO trademark. Data East filed for bankruptcy and most of their games were acquired and the Data East trademark was purchased by G-Mode Corporation. Acclaim filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and sold their assets to multiple existing companies while executives purchased the the Acclaim trademark. And finally, THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sold all of their assets to multiple companies and Nordic Games, who would acquire mainline franchises and purchase the THQ trademark and use it to rename themselves as THQ Nordic.

The 3DO Company, Data East, Acclaim, Midway and THQ were the five companies that had to file for bankruptcy respectively and they are deemed as nostalgic. G-Mode, Warner Bros. Games and THQ Nordic purchased the Data East, Midway Games and the THQ trademarks and logos and used them to ensure growth while the 3DO trademark was left unacquired. Executives did purchase the Acclaim trademark and used it to relaunch the company as an indie publisher. That's why we don't see Warner Bros. Games, THQ Nordic or G-Mode as nostalgic since they exist in this generation.

I did a post that talks about how we experience Mortal Kombat forever because of both Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios and the competition between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Here's a link to the post if you're interesting in knowing more.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2026/05/how-mortal-kombat-changed-series-forever.html