Following the reveal that 2XKO will have only 10 playable champions at launch, and the negative reception to what is undoubtedly a smaller initial roster than expect, 2XKO’s executive producer Tom Cannon has stated that the development team has shifted to further prioritise champion output and stated his own personal target character count: 24.
Speaking to press, professional fighting game players and commentators, and content creators at the 2XKO community tour preview in France earlier this month, Tom Cannon said the following when asked by VG247 about the 10 character launch roster, what cadence of post-launch champ releases, and how many teams they currently having working on new champions at this time.
“I can say that we have champions that we’re working on that you haven’t seen yet. I’ll tell you for me a number that would feel better than 10, just as my personal opinion, is around 24. I think at 24 you’re like, okay now there’s enough to keep me going, and then we can add more and more. But as for what would be enough for me? Or rather, a good starting point? 24.”
“We’re not close to that now, so we’re going to work quickly to get to that point, and then we’re going to keep going. The reason why I’m being a little cagey at this stuff is because honestly we’re still getting better at this stuff. This is a new fighting game team, even though we’ve been at this for a little while, we’re not on like version five of a franchise right? We’re building this team as we go and we’re learning how to do things. You’re seeing the game get better, look better visually, and the character kits get more dialled in as, frankly, we’re getting more familiar with the game and better at our jobs.”
“We do have multiple champions pods going at once, and have heard the feedback we got regarding the 10 champion launch roster. We know you want more and we’re tuning the game team to make sure we can optimise for getting as many champs out as possible, while keeping the quality level high. Like, one of the reasons why we only have 10 champs is because we do have that high bar on quality. We don’t want half the roster to be just the assist that you use. Every character is going to be someone’s favourite character, and you should be able to play that character and feel like you have something that is legit.”
“But yeah, one of the top things we’re talking about now as a team is the roster, because we know 10 is small, we know that we want more, we know that League is adding new champions. The discussions around who is next is also really fun, and it’s something we’re really passionate about, and it’s a real priority for us.”
Cannon would not further elaborate on the planned cadence of champion releases post-launch, nor how many releases the team are hoping to get out to players once the game finally comes out, but the response he did provide does offer some insight into the team’s reception to the 10 champion figure. Riot Games, a company that has built itself around live service game development, has experience in supporting games like 2XKO for long periods of time, even if the 2XKO team itself is relatively fresh to the ordeal.
For now, as players in the Americas jump back into the game via 2XKO’s second Alpha Lab test, the focus of the community is squarely on the game following wide-spread gameplay updates. With the game set to launch some time in 2025, we’re still due three more character reveals before the 1.0 version of 2XKO is finally out there. Who do you think they’ll be, and when do you think we’ll see them? Let us know below!