Riot Games has apparently cancelled an in-development platform fighter called Pool Party. A report from Mikhail Klimentov (ReaderGrev) claims that Pool Party would have had gameplay similar to Nintendo’s Smash Bros., set in the League of Legends universe.
There were around 70-80 developers working on the game before Riot Games sunsetted its development. It’s also suggested that Riot Games was working on a platform fighter because they saw potential in building an esports landscape around it.
Joe Hixson, senior communications director at Riot Games, responded in a statement to Klimentov, saying that Riot Games always has a number of projects in “various phases of R&D, and spinning projects up and down happens multiple times a year.”
The report also alleges Riot executives were “spooked” after the perceived failure of Multiversus, a crossover IP platform-fighting game from Warner Bros. Though Pool Party was originally envisioned as a “hardcore fighting game,” it went through several revisions, including the addition of party game elements and gameplay mechanics which are “casual-friendly”. It has also been claimed that the fundamental changes to the scope and vision of Pool Party left some of the staff frustrated.
The report has also claims that Riot Games offered half of the team working on Pool Party to be reassigned to a different project within the studio, and other developers were looking for new positions within the company. According to Klimentov’s source, 10 have still not received an offer nor were part of the internal application process, which could imply they’ve left the company.
None of this has affected 2XKO however, Riot’s publicly announced fighting game. The company is preparing to debut a new demo at Evo 2024, and plans are in motion for a 2025 launch.
