In today's post, I'm going to talk about one of the Japanese companies that can potentially become a licensee of the 2XKO IP, Arc System Works. The team behind the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue franchises has made Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as a licensee to Marvel. Despite the PC issues, it was well-recieved and sold like over 750,000 and hailed it as a spiritual successor to Marvel vs. Capcom. I have thought about this in private and on social media, so this brings me to ask this question. What if 2XKO's development was handled by Arc System Works as a licensee in association with Riot Games? Let's go over the key benefits to Arc handling development.
Motion Inputs:
First off, we'll talk about something that 2XKO never had. Motion inputs consisting of quarter circles, half circles, dragon inputs and charge motions are always important when it comes to fighting games. Some fighting games have simple controls that involve button mashing and one button specials with directional influences. 2XKO uses two special buttons with directional influences. We can actually keep the S1 and S2 buttons, but make specials also performable with motion inputs and pressing any attack button. Motion input versions deal a little more damage than one-button specials, which is what the "Good!' means.
Long-Term Sustainability:
When 2XKO came out on console, half of the team behind it was laid off, citing that momentum has not been reached to the level required for long-term sustainability. They were committed until the news popped up that active development will end in December. Do you know who can provide enough energy and help cover costs? Arc System Works. As I have said on X, with Arc's help, Riot will be able to have a sustained player engagement and looking at ways to cover and curb rising costs.
Six Characters Per Year:
A lot of people were clamouring and complaining about fighting games like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and even Marvel Tokon having a cadence of releasing four additional characters per year. 2XKO was originally supposed to have a release cadence of five characters per year, but changed it to six and to seven. We got Samira and Sett coming as the last two characters to complete the roster to 18 before active development sunsets. But ArcSys' help can help change everything. We could be seeing a release cadence of six characters per year while Arc System Works' help can curb rising costs. Now, agreeing or disagreeing with their complaints against a release cadence of four characters per year is up to you. But for me, I strongly agree, especially with characters coming out in each season.
Custom Lobbies:
Currently, we have private lobbies that are only meant for those you invited. I have been asking for custom lobbies to be both private and public, but the team seemingly doesn't have the resources for that. Arc System Works has a lot of resources to provide Riot with. With Arc's extra resources, Riot can make custom lobbies both private and public. It worked well with other fighting games Arc has done with.
Better Character Output:
Guilty Gear and BlazBlue are the two fighting games Arc System Works owns the rights to. Them helping Riot can help deliver characters in a better output. League of Legends have characters that could have playbooks from the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue characters. Examples would be Miss Fortune having Noel Vermillion's playbook and Shen having Bang Shishigami or Answer's playbook.
These are the five benefits to 2XKO continuing active development under Arc System Works. But there is one caveat to this. If Riot licensed it to Arc System Works, will it still be called 2XKO? Well, not necessarily. It can be rebranded to "League of Legends Versus," which I think it's a perfect name to pick up where 2XKO left off. If Arc System Works' anime fighters could succeed, then there's a chance that a hypothetical League of Legends Versus can succeed. It became a huge wake-up call within Marvel Tokon. It brought the X-Men characters back into the fighting game genre, which contributed to its strong sales nearing a million units, mostly on the PS5 version. In fact, Cyclops and Jubilee are coming to the game, with others like Gambit, Rogue and even Emma Frost to be coming through subsequent Year Passes.
As it turns out, Riot may not be the only company to be in association with Arc System Works because there are other big companies that could potentially be in association with them, like SEGA to license a Sonic fighting game and Square Enix to license a Final Fantasy fighting game. They would be awesome. Arc System Works, in fact, have confirmed a One Piece fighting game as their brand new IP to have 2D sprites that resemble the style of Skullgirls, which is great. It shows that Arc System Works is not getting out of their comfort zone during development of it.
See, 2XKO may have not been able to stand a chance to get a longer development cycle like other fighting games did. They are ending most of the comms from 2XKO in November 6 with the exception of remaining competitive events and patch notes. Beyond them, we will never hear anything from the team ever again. But there is a spark of hope. Who could give 2XKO a second wind? Arc System Works. It might be a possibility.
Many live service games like 2XKO are not as sustainable as we once thought, so they had no choice but to sunset them. It became a stark disappointment and melancholy to the community. But Arc System Works can be able to give 2XKO a second wind it needs, along with an opportunity to revive most of the comms, put competitive events under Arc World Tour and explore the possibility of confirming Malcolm Graves, Zed, Leona, Veigar, Lucian, Camille, Garen, Vayne, Sona, Miss Fortune, Gangplank and everyone else in a giant pile of legendary characters! We will have to wait and see if Riot can actually license the 2XKO IP to Arc System Works.
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