Riot Games has reportedly canceled a Smash Bros.-like fighting game

Riot Games reportedly scrapped plans for a Super Smash Bros.-style fighting game earlier this year after learning of MultiVersus' poor commercial performance.

The details:

• According to ReaderGrev's Mikhail Klimentov, formerly of The Washington Post, 70 to 80 developers were working on a prototype for the League of Legends-themed title, codenamed "Pool Party." The title was originally designed to appeal to hardcore fighting game fans, but Riot later introduced more casual-friendly and party-style content.

• It is claimed that the decision to cancel the project was made after Riot executives were informed of the poor commercial performance of Warner Bros' crossover fighter MultiVersus, which was relaunched in May. Since its full release, its player count has dropped into the low thousands according to SteamDB, much like its open beta last year.

• Riot senior communications director Joe Hixson also addressed the report in a statement to Klimentov. "We always have a number of projects in various phases of R&D, and spinning projects up and down happens multiple times a year,” Hixson explained.

• Those working on the game were either offered the opportunity to be reassigned to the studio's other projects, or they are currently looking for new positions internally through the company's job board.

• Pool Party is not to be confused with Riot's upcoming 2v2 League of Legends fighter, 2XKO (formerly Project L), which was announced back in 2022. 2XKO is still scheduled for a free-to-play release next year for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

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• Sony and Pocketpair have formed a partnership to create Palworld Entertainment, a company dedicated to expanding Palworld beyond the game itself through products such as merchandise.