Riot’s “Grail”: The MMO That Could Make or Break the Company

Marc Merrill, one of the co-founders of Riot Games and its current CPO, has offered a glimpse into the future of the company, including its ambitious, long-in-development MMO. This comes on the heels of the sudden end-of-development announcement for its fighting game, 2XKO, raising questions about Riot’s commitment to live service games.

The “Grail” and the High Stakes

Speaking at Pax West 2026 with Greg Miller, Merrill spoke for around an hour about Riot Games’ history and future projects. He touched upon the in-development MMO, describing it internally as “the grail.” This bold statement highlights the immense pressure and expectations surrounding this project.

“We know what players’ hopes and dreams are,” Merrill said. “It’s just on us as a team and as people to succeed in the execution. What a worthy quest. We jokingly call it the grail internally because we’re like ‘fck it, many a brave knight are going to die’.”

“But fck it, it’s the grail so lets go. That’s the mindset that we really try to cultivate, but it’s really hard to do at scale. But I think we’re doing a reasonable job and the future is incredibly bright.”

A Rocky Road Ahead?

This MMO, which remains unnamed and lacks even a basic release window or genre confirmation, has been in development for some time. Initially overseen by former Blizzard lead Greg Street who left the company back in 2023, the project restarted development in recent years. Merrill previously stated that the game would be released before 2030, but details have been scarce.

The announcement has sparked a mixed reaction online. While some are excited about the prospect of a new MMO from Riot, many remain skeptical given the abrupt cancellation of 2XKO. A common sentiment is whether players can truly trust that this project will receive long-term support.

“They hyping up this MMO like they aren’t just going to shoot it in the face after six months cause it won’t be bigger than WoW,” writes user Sloth on X. Another user, Red Riot Ross echoed similar sentiments, writing: “The only thing 2XKO sunsetting has done for riot is give laughably bad optics on anything they do/make going forward.” Tsuki, another X user, posted: “Wait till they hear how FF14‘s first 3 years went,” referencing the challenging early days of Square Enix’s MMO before its eventual success.

The pressure is on for Riot to deliver a successful and sustainable MMO, especially after the recent controversies surrounding 2XKO. The company needs to prove that it can not only create a compelling game but also provide the long-term support necessary for a thriving online community.

The 2XKO Aftermath

Merrill addressed the cancellation of 2XKO, emphasizing that it “wouldn’t characterize 2XKO as a mistake.” He explained the challenges of free-to-play games and the live service model, highlighting the difficulty of gaining enough critical mass to build a sustainable community in a crowded market.

“One of the challenges with free-to-play games and the live service model in general… Unless you do something so incredible in a really competitive world where 20,000+ games are published a year on Steam, and there’s an infinite amount of social media content, and an infinite amount of stuff to watch on YouTube, what we’re doing is competing for people’s attention. That’s a really high bar.”

“You have to do so many things right to get enough critical mass to build the community and have it turn into something and be sustainable in the long run,” said Merrill. “2XKO unfortunately didn’t do that, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great game. That’s why we’re refunding. It’s also why we’re keeping the game live.”

A History of Stumbles

Riot Games appears to be at a critical juncture. While 2XKO is the latest in its stumbles as a massive live service games company, it is not the only one it has had to contend with. The digital card game Legends of Runeterra faced a similar fate to 2XKO back in 2024, and the company cut its indie publishing label Riot Forge back around the same time. Its top-down action game Project F, which we only saw once alongside the would-be 2XKO many years ago, hasn’t been seen since. While the company still has League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and the newly popular Riftbound TCG out and about, it’s got far from a spotless history.

The pressure is on then, to prove not only that this upcoming MMO (whatever it is) can stand up in a fiercely competitive genre and be supported for the long haul. Whether Riot Games can do that remains to be seen, as does the game itself.