2XKO is an upcoming team-based fighter game from League of Legends studio, Riot Games, and it looks to be getting a 2025 release. While 2XKO had an alpha playtest since August of this year, the development team recently hinted in a post on X that something is coming in March next year—potentially an expanded beta playtest or even the full launch of the game: "brb for a bit - locking in. you'll see what we've been up to in march, but we'll drop an update in february. in the meantime, support your locals."

The alpha version of the game Riot playtested in August was seemingly quite feature-complete, although a slew of changes is coming to the game based on that feedback, suggesting that what's to come in early 2025 is likely a wider playtest, rather than a full launch. Riot has previously confirmed that 2XKO will be launching sometime in 2025, but there is likely more testing necessary before the game is ready for prime time. That said, Riot Games is no stranger to short beta periods—League of Legends launched into open beta a mere week before its full launch. If 2XKO's previous development updates and the last playtest are anything to go by, the February update Riot teased will probably preview what to expect in the next playtest, with March either being the playtest itself or a showcase of an upcoming alpha or beta test.

Epic Games kicked off the Unreal Fest in Seattle earlier this week with a keynote that revealed some interesting details about the company's marketing and publication strategies going forward. Also during that same keynote, Riot Games executive producer, Anna Donlon, teased that there will be more "playable experiences" coming to the "Valorant universe."

While Donlon was deliberately vague about any upcoming Valorant-adjacent games currently in development, she was a little more candid about Valorant's Unreal Engine 5 update, admitting that limitations in Unreal Engine 4.27—Valorant's current underpinnings—were what prompted the move to UE5 in the first place. However, a shift to Unreal Engine 5 will not immediately change how the game performs, feels, or looks.

It's time to get a little wicked. Members can now stream No Rest for the Wicked from the cloud. It leads six new games joining the GeForce NOW library of more than 1,500 games.

Holy Moly
No Rest for the Wicked is the highly anticipated action role-playing game from Moon Studios, developer of the Ori series, and publisher Private Division. Amid a plague-ridden world, step into the boots of a Cerim, a holy warrior on a desperate mission. The Great Pestilence has ravaged the land of Sacra, and a new king reigns. As a colonialist inquisition unfolds, engage in visceral combat, battle plague-infested creatures and uncover the secrets of the continent. Make the character you want with the game's flexible soft-class system, explore a rich storyline, and prepare for intense boss battles as you build up the town of Sacrament.

LG Electronics (LG) is releasing a limited-edition UltraGear OLED gaming monitor (model 27GR95QL) for League of Legends fans. In addition to a vibrant 27-inch OLED display boasting a fast 240 Hz refresh rate, the monitor features distinctive League of Legends-themed designs and icons applied to its exterior and on-screen menus, developed with valuable feedback from League of Legends gamers. As one would expect of an UltraGear product, the 27GR95QL delivers smooth, immersive gaming experiences and comes packed with gamer-centric features.

The limited-edition League of Legends UltraGear OLED gaming monitor is the latest example of LG's strong partnership with Riot Games, the developer and publisher of League of Legends. First released in 2009, the beloved multiplayer online battle arena game now has the largest gaming fandom in all of esports. Over 600 million fans have played League of Legends over the past decade and the game has amassed an average of 180 million players per month.

HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the HyperX x VALORANT Champions Tour Spark Limited Edition Keycap. Specifically designed for VALORANT fans, the new tournament-exclusive keycap allows fans to personalize their desk setup. The keycap is uniquely crafted to showcase support for your favorite VALORANT Champions and competing teams.

HyperX and Riot Games collaborated to create a champion-tier keycap that boasts a gold color and showcases the VCT Spark logo and tournament year. Additionally, the keycap features the tagline "One More," symbolizing the endless competitive spirit of players and fans who constantly strive for victory. This collaboration with Riot Games has resulted in a fun, spirited, and memorable design that perfectly captures the essence of competitive gaming during this year's Champions tournament.

HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the signing of Sean Gares as a HyperX ambassador. Joining the HyperX family, Gares brings extensive experience to the HyperX community as a professional player, caster and well-known content creator, making him an ideal candidate to collaborate with HyperX and provide unique content for gamers and fans alike.

Having previously played for renowned esports organizations such as Cloud 9 and Echo Fox, Gares' deep-rooted knowledge of competitive gaming enables him to create highly engaging and informative content. Gares' exceptional expertise in the popular first-person shooter game, Valorant, has earned him a reputation as one of the top content creators in the gaming industry.

Riot Games provided its first response to last week's cyberattack on its company network. The company alleges that the attackers have exfiltrated with the source-codes for "League of Legends," "Teamfight Tactics," and a proprietary anti-cheat software that's no longer in use. Riot Games assures all that no game user data was compromised with this attack (particularly passwords or payment-instrument details); and at worst the stolen source code could help the attackers create cheats. The company also received a ransom e-mail from the attackers demanding payment, failing which they threaten to release the source code to public; but Riot said that it does not intend to pay. Since user information isn't compromised, and the games themselves are protected by IP laws globally, there's little reason to pay up.

LG Electronics' (LG) latest UltraGear gaming monitor (model 25GR75FG) has been named the official display of the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) 2023. The new monitor will make its debut during the upcoming LEC season, which begins this weekend, supporting players from the region's top teams as they battle it out for tournament honors. LG UltraGear is proud to continue its strong partnership with LEC, one of the world's most popular esports leagues, and remains committed to fostering the growth of esports internationally.

Designed for competitive esports, the latest LG UltraGear gaming monitor delivers outstanding picture quality and speed thanks to a 24.5-inch Full-HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS display with a 360 Hz refresh rate and 1 millisecond Gray-to-Gray (GTG) response time. The performance of LG's new gaming display is further boosted by the integration of NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, which minimizes screen-tearing for seamless visuals, and NVIDIA Reflex, which helps to reduce click-to-display latency for more precise control of the onscreen action. VESA Display HDR 400 certified, the 25GR75FG also ensures bright, clear images and has a 3-sided borderless design that helps increase players' sense of immersion, making it easier to focus during fierce competition.

The Riot Games and Xbox communities are coming together to bring amazing content for Game Pass members. Today, Riot Games and Xbox announced that Riot's biggest titles are coming to Game Pass this winter. We're bringing together two of the biggest communities in gaming onto one platform. In a first for Game Pass, the partnership extends beyond Riot's PC games to include Riot's mobile-only and mobile-accessible titles.

We've always respected Xbox's relentless push to drive gaming forward, and we're proud to add our games to the Xbox catalog through Game Pass. We're also thrilled to welcome Xbox players into Riot's ecosystem of diverse and passionate gamers across the world. In the coming months, we'll share more about the partnership and how members can access the Game Pass content.

Logitech G, a brand of Logitech and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, in partnership with Riot Games, creator of League of Legends, introduced today a series of collectible League of Legends PC gaming gear. Offering the same high-performance that gamers have come to expect from Logitech G, this collaboration is designed with the League of Legends proprietary Hextech look and feel across a suite of products that includes the Logitech G PRO X Gaming Headset, the Logitech G PRO Wireless Gaming Mouse, the Logitech G PRO Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, and the Logitech G840 XL Gaming Mouse pad.

"When you love a game like League of Legends, you immerse yourself in it like it's your real world," said Peter Kingsley, CMO of Logitech G. "We built this collection in collaboration with the League of Legends team, based on the idea of marrying our pro-level products and technologies with League of Legends iconic Hextech designs. The headset, keyboard, mouse and mousepad are clad in special League colors, creating a unique collection designed to inspire transcendent levels of gameplay."

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc, announced today it will become a founding partner of Riot Games' VALORANT Champions Tour. The deal will see HyperX become the official sponsor for gaming keyboard, mice and mouse pads. "We're excited to welcome our newest partner to the VCT. HyperX joins us as the Official Keyboard, Mouse, and Mousepad Partner of the VALORANT Champions Tour," said Naz Aletaha, Head of Global Esports Partnerships and Business Development at Riot Games. "We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome them and have their amazing products supporting our event in Reykjavik and beyond."

VALORANT quickly established itself as the fastest-growing esport of 2020. To support the competitive scene, Riot Games launched the VALORANT Champions Tour, a year-long, global circuit featuring three levels of competition: Challengers, Masters and Champions. Teams compete through regional Challengers events, then qualify into international Masters events, with the goal to earn a spot at Champions. In this two-week long tournament, one team will be crowned the VALORANT Global Champion. The season-long tour will feature competitions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Logitech G, a brand of Logitech and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, and Riot Games, creator of League of Legends, the most-played PC game in the world, today announced an exclusive new multi-year partnership. As a part of the agreement, Logitech G will introduce a portfolio of officially licensed League of Legends (LoL) gaming products, the first of which is inspired by the aesthetics of the global virtual music group, K/DA, and their 2020 comeback.

"We're honored to be selected as the official and exclusive partner to RIOT Games for the world's biggest games ever, League of Legends," said Peter Kingsley, chief marketing officer at Logitech G. "Our multi-year partnership will bring several product, technology and design collaborations that will give League of Legends fans the best way to play."

Riot Games has come under fire recently for its "Vanguard" anti-cheat software found in their new game Valorant due to the use of kernel-mode drivers with Ring 0 privileges. This raised several important security and user concerns around system security and stability, while not solving the root problem Riot Games has in response released a new blog post detailing the workings of the "Vanguard" anti-cheat software. This blog post was paired with an announcement that Riot Games would be increasing the maximum payout available from their bug-bounty program and introduce a new "Vanguard" scope to help further improve security. Riot Games has also introduced new updates to Valorant which will allow users to disable "Vanguard" from the system tray when not in-game, however, this will lock the player out of Valorant until the computer is rebooted. In addition to the system tray changes is an option to fully uninstall the "Vanguard" software from the user's computer has been added at long last.

In what ended up overshadowing most of the news coming out of PAX West 2018, Riot Games delivered a masterclass in how not to handle things in a politically-correct environment. The situation in question concerned a series of sessions that were targeted to, and I quote, "women and non-binary folks" which was well intended and meant to be more of an acknowledgement of the minorities in the gaming industry.

Unfortunately, this wording and then poor-execution and follow-up from their part meant that things quickly turned sour. People at the event were quick to notice that the room reserved for these sessions appeared to have volunteers attempt to keep them away. What was intended to be a support session then turned into allegations flying all around, and social media lit abuzz with what seemed to be discrimination against straight men by the company.