Riot Games Reportedly Canceled a League of Legends Universe-Set Smash Bros Style Fighting Game

Riot Games, whichlaid off 500 employees and canceled a number of projects this year, was reportedly working on a Smash Bros-style platform melee fighting game set in the League of Legends universe. That project, codenamed Pool Party, was canceled back in May according to a new report. 

Pool Party’s cancellation resulted in the loss of approximately 70 to 80 employees, according to the report from journalist Mikhail Klimentov. Riot has asserted that they were looking to expand League of Legends in various ways, with additional riffs on the IP, from an MMORPG to fighting games like Pool Party. With this year’s layoffs announcement and shuttering some projects, Riot, like many other companies announcing playoffs, said they had overhired and needed to bring focus back on their core IPs.

Yet, those major layoffs were announced back in January and Pool Party was canned in May. It seems that the project, over time, had course, scope, and moved from a hardcore fighting game to something more casual with party game mechanics. As for what ultimately led to the project’s shutdown were a few factors, such as the general industry instability, and the shaky reception for Warner Bros’ MultiVersus. This led to “a reassessment of consumer appetite for a Smash competitor” at Riot, which pulled back.

After having its open beta shut down and pulled, MultiVersus returned and officially launched at the end of May. Warner Bros. had essentially remade the game from the ground up and added changes based on player feedback and testing.Launch day showed over 110,000 concurrent players. That game is in the middle of its season and continues to add new content. 

Klimentov quoted Riot’s Joe Hixson, who said, “We always have a number of projects in various phases of R&D, and spinning projects up and down happens multiple times a year”.

As for Riot, they still have a number of announced and unannounced projects in the works, including team-based fighter 2XKO.