[[2026 Games#^53c076|2026 Games]]  ~~**2XKO**~~ **Project L** is dead, which is disappointing news. There are many reasons that this has happened, but I do wanna touch on one thing that I think might get lost in the Discourse with this quick post. And that's the F2P nature. I think there's an aspect of F2P fighting games that is going to be very difficult to clear. Fighting games struggle with long-term retention. That's simply the nature of a genre that's difficult to get into and harder to learn deeply. But even with that said, people will buy fighting games. Casuals will buy fighting games, play them for a bit, and jump away after a short while. And I think those upfront purchases are actually a huge part of the revenue that allows fighting games to survive. I think you *need* that initial bump to actually show that revenue's been put on the board. But pulling that upfront cost means that a F2P player can get their hit for a few days, weeks, or even months, never spend a cent, and then bounce anyways. And unlike something like Apex or Fortnite, that likelihood is going to occur. A person who's dipping their toes into such an uncasual genre isn't going to impulse buy a skin for their favorite character, who they struggle to do combos with. They won't get avatar decorations when they're too scared to hop into a casual lobby. And I completely understand why they wouldn't. I think **Project L** would have struggled regardless - its mistakes were vast ~~and its owos mew~~ - but I *do* think they'd have made more money if they had an upfront cost.