League of Legends studio reportedly canned Smash Bros. style fighter following perceived MultiVersus flop

Riot Games was reportedly developing a Smash Bros. style fighter set in the League of Legends universe, but pulled the plug on the project earlier this year after perceiving Warner Bros’ Smash-inspired MultiVersus to have been a commercial failure.

That’s according to former Washington Post video games and esports editor Mikhail Klimentov, who – writing in his ReaderGrev newsletter – claims 70-80 Riot employees were working on the Smash-style platform fighter, codenamed Pool Party.

Citing current and former Riot employees familiar with the project, Klimentov says Pool Party was initially envisaged as a hardcore fighting game but grew to incorporate party game elements and casual-friendly mechanics as development continued.

Project L Is Now 2XKO

Riot executives reportedly saw an opportunity to build and support the game’s esports scene, but started getting cold feet after the release of Warner Bros’ Smash-style free-to-play fighter MultiVersus. That game’s launch is said to have been perceived as a failure by Riot decision makers, prompting the studio to reassess the consumer appetite for a Smash competitor. As a result, it cancelled the development of Pool Party in May this year.

Klimentov says approximately half the 70-80 Riot employees working on the project have received offers to be assigned elsewhere in the company, while others are seeking new positions through the company’s internal job board.

In a statement provided to Klimentov as part of his report, senior comms director Joe Hixson 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”.

Pool Party is not to be confused with Riot’s other League of Legends’ fighter, 2XKO. Announced back in August 2022 under the name Project L, 2XKO will launch as free-to-play title for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime next year.