Seems like Lords of the Fallen 2 has hit another roadblock. The partnership between developer Defiant Studios and publisher CI Games appears to have ended.
CI Games announced the news via a press release. The split sounds pretty acrimonious. In the release, CI accuses Defiant of "inadequate execution...of a key work stage, a so-called vertical slice". CI says the quality of work done by Defiant was "lower than expected...despite three calls to improve the quality of this stage of work". Ouch. Speaking to Eurogamer, Defiant Studios' David Grijns said the studio "categorically disagree[s]" with CI Games' assessment. Grijns says Defiant is staffed by exceedingly talented developers who have worked on a number of high-profile projects. Due to contractual confidentiality obligations, Defiant refused to expand further on the matter.
CI Games originally brought in Defiant to develop Lords of the Fallen 2 last year. The New York-based developer announced it would scrap previous work done by CI Games and "reset". After this uncoupling, CI Games intends to finish the rest of Lords of the Fallen 2 using an in-house development team. It's hard to imagine this news leading to anything but more delays for the ill-fated sequel. CI has undergone quite a few changes around its development wing, so it remains to be seen whether the developmental talent is still there to finish Fallen 2.
Lords of the Fallen launched back in 2014 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The fantasy action-RPG took heavy influence from Dark Souls and was the first real 'souls-like' to hit the market. Publisher CI Games announced a sequel in 2014, with which original developer Deck13 would have no involvement. After numerous setbacks and delays, it's not yet clear when the game will actually be released. At the time of writing, no art assets or gameplay footage exist for Lords of the Fallen 2. We'll bring you more on this game as we get it.
Are you still optimistic for Lords of the Fallen 2? Which developer would you like to see working on the game? Let us know in the comments below!