Prior to Riot Games ceasing production, the game was being worked on by around 70–80 developers. Riot Games may have been developing a platform fighter because they saw opportunity to create a thriving esports industry around it.
In response to Klimentov, Riot Games' senior director of communications Joe Hixson said in a statement that the company always has a variety of projects in "various phases of R&D, and spinning projects up and down happens multiple times a year."
Additionally, the story claims that Riot execs were "spooked" by the apparent failure of Warner Bros.' crossover IP platform-fighting game Multiversus. Even though Pool Party was initially intended to be a "hardcore fighting game," it underwent a number of changes, including the inclusion of party game components and "casual-friendly" gameplay features. It has also been said that several staff members were left unsatisfied by the significant alterations made to the goals and objectives of Pool Party.
Additionally, according to the source, Riot Games offered to shift half of the staff working on Pool Party to another project inside the studio, while other developers were seeking for other roles within the organization. Ten have not yet gotten an offer or participated in the internal application procedure, which may indicate they have departed the organization, according to Klimentov's source.
But none of this has had an impact on Riot's widely revealed fighting game, 2XKO . The business is getting ready to present a fresh demo at Evo 2024, and launch plans are underway for 2025.