2XKO is Ceasing Active Development...

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. 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 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 and rave reviews, 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. When I said that... if a game, like, I don't know, Skullgirls could continue active development despite challenges, then anything was possible, I didn't mean 2XKO should cease active development despite rave reviews.

Other than Vi and Jinx in their Arcane model, Riot ceasing active development on 2XKO comes after the announcement of bringing League of Legends characters to Fortnite to be used as skins, starting with Ahri. Literally, just one year after launch. There are literally just a lot of characters just begging to be in the roster. Lee Sin, Miss Fortune, Ezreal, Gangplank, Leona, Ashe, Kennen. But that will never happen because the characters I mentioned are likely to be used as skins in Fortnite. Even Diaphone is quitting his job to play this game in light of the news and I don't even 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 has a meager 26 viewers. 

Overwatch has a whopping 61.5K viewers.

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 a game's player retention 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. It's one of the perfect side-by-side comparisons of brilliant execution and humiliating failure. Blizzard has literally nailed the grand slam with Overwatch. They kept the game free-to-play after dropping the 2 from the title. Blizzard has listened to the community during Overwatch's active development and they intend to make it the best it can be for the community.

I thought that 2XKO has changed everything that it is on par with the Alpha Lab playtests, but I was apparently wrong. This posed an issue with AAA games. The PC versions of them have performance issues and live service games die because of poor engagement. That's where smaller companies pick up the pieces.

I made a post on X sharing my feelings about how disappointed I am about 2XKO ceasing active development due to low player engagement. According to Ludwig, he believed that 2XKO ceasing active development early is not just because of low player retention. It's actually due to Riot relying on metrics over community, which is something that Blizzard wouldn't dare do during Overwatch's active development.

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 = Gain Ground
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. For that, I am deleting the post that talks about the wanted future characters and mentions about it on certain posts.

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 their next game.

This seals the deal. Since 2XKO is ceasing active development at 17 characters after a year since launch like how MultiVersus died at 35 characters, effective immediately, I'm retiring myself from playing 2XKO and diverting my attention to two other tag fighters, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls and SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. Riot owes me a refund for the skins and packs I have purchased. After I helped them with for moments since Early Access, they do this to me? They shouldn't be ceasing active development just because player retention is low. Heck, Skullgirls had a low player retention and it is continuing active development despite that because of the fact that it banks on community support.

But luckily, SEGA vs. Capcom is getting a bevy of straight up confirmed characters, including the ones I have wished for, Honey, NiGHTS, Falcon, Zero, Jon Talbain, Ristar, Ulala, Shadow the Hedgehog, Chris Redfield, Selvaria Bles, Viewtiful Joe, Ryo Hazuki, whomever you can think of! I did do a post that talks about the new info revealed in the livestream for the game and am working on a post that suggests improvements that the game needs. You can click the link to the post where I did a deep dive into the situation. And if the post that suggests improvements is up, you can click the link below.

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

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