Riot pulls 2XKO, Microsoft loses Compulsion, and GTA 6 leaks hit stocks

Riot Games is shutting down 2XKO before the end of the year, citing a weak launch and poor player retention. The fighter never found its footing, and Riot's admission that not enough players stuck with it marks a rare public concession from a studio that built its reputation on long-running live service games. The closure lands alongside a separate piece of bad news for Microsoft: the company has officially lost Compulsion Games, the studio behind South of Midnight — and a separate report notes that money spent on South of Midnight now benefits its developers rather than Microsoft, a wrinkle in the studio's post-acquisition situation worth watching.

GTA 6 leaks are doing measurable damage beyond the internet discourse — Take-Two's stock has taken a hit as a result, a sign of how seriously the market treats pre-release exposure for a title of that scale. Microsoft, for its part, has also stopped sharing digital sales data with Circana, tightening the information available to analysts tracking the platform's performance. Hardware spending figures for July are drawing attention too, with Destructoid flagging that the percentage drops, even if broadly anticipated, came in sharper than expected.

FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki offered a candid reminder of the studio's design philosophy, saying that even after Elden Ring's massive success, the motivation behind making games remains personal — building something he himself wants to see exist. On the PC side, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy has already leaked a week ahead of its release, the latest in a run of high-profile PC leaks. And Black Myth: Zhong Kui showed off 15 minutes of gameplay, featuring swordplay, boss fights, and skeleton designs that have caught the attention of action game fans.