2XKO won’t force players to buy characters: “you can be the best player in the world for free”

New 2XKO information was revealed live during Evo 2024, as part of a live panel featuring executive producer Tom Cannon and game director Shaun Rivera. In it, Tom Cannon revealed some initial details about how the free-to-play game will be monetized.

“You can be the best player in the world for free without spending a dime!” Exclaimed Cannon near the start of the presentation. A moment later, he revealed that all fighters can be earned in game without paying (while noting that it’ll require a bit of a grind). However, as part of this model, Cannon also addressed how Riot intends to be make some money.

“We’re gonna sell you stuff. But when we sell you something it’s going to be really high quality”, notes Cannon. Examples include stickers of various champions doing emotes (think Legends of Runeterra), and skins! In fact, the pair even showed off a new skin with Dynasty Ahri, who got a few seconds of gameplay shown off. According to Cannon, both the model and VFX was changed for this skin, and all skins will have a standard selection of nine chromas (Riot’s term for palette changes).

Cannon would also note that this Ahri skin would be unlockable in the upcoming alpha labs play test through the game’s first battle pass, which seems to be running alongside the initial test. All in all this monetization system feels a lot like League of Legends’ approach, though pricing and further details remain unclear.

How do you feel about this approach? Do you like it, or do you prefer the non-live-service angle? Let us know below!