Lords of the Fallen 2 publishers, CI Games, announced a partnership with Defiant Studios, an independent studio founded in 2016 by the former head of Avalanche Studios. The sequel to the Dark Souls-like RPG has been on hiatus for a couple of years despite initially being announced in 2014 and slated for a 2017 release.
In a statement, Founder of Defiant Studios David Grijns said, “we have been talking with CI Games for several months now, and went through a detailed process of getting to know one another’s expectations and motivations in regards to Lords of the Fallen 2.”
Along with that, CI Games describes its partnership with Defiant Studios as an “important step” in the development of a high quality second entry of its 2014 action RPG series. The studio also says that partnering with Defiant Studios is a key component in their strategy to collaborate with “strong external teams to deliver quality gaming experiences with the player in mind.”
“Defiant is made up of some the industry’s most talented creators, and we are thrilled to have them create the sequel to LotF. We look forward to bringing their next big game to the global market on consoles and PC,” said CI Games Chief Executive Officer, Marek Tymiński.
The first Lords of the Fallen was developed by Deck13 Interactive and sold over two million units. Before the announcement, CI Games announced that they were moving forward with the sequel with a small team, even after the departure of Deck13. In July 2017, the series lost its executive producer Tomasz Gop due to conflicting views on the direction of the series.
Nothing in terms of a sequel has emerged, of course, and the disappointing performance of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 might have something to do with why. The open-world shooter was the publisher’s most expensive, and most ambitious game the studio produced, yet a poor critical and consumer reception meant that CI Games had to change its approach for future projects.
It’s likely that Defiant Studios is going to have to start from scratch, so the chances of playing the sequel to this fantasy-themed action RPG franchise anytime soon is very low. It’s been a long wait already, so does waiting even longer even matter?
