CI Games has announced that it will be collaborating with developer Defiant Studios to work on Lords of the Fallen 2. The first game was initially released back in 2014 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It was criticized by critics and overlooked by many gamers for essentially being a clone of Dark Souls. However, it apparently sold well enough that a sequel has now been greenlit for development.
According to the press release, the first Lords of the Fallen game has sold 2 million units to date. That would have been a huge factor in CI Games’ decision to proceed with a sequel. The developer of the first game, Deck13 Interactive, is not involved in the sequel since it has gone on to develop and release The Surge in 2017. It is currently busy developing The Surge 2 slated for release in 2019, which was confirmed earlier in February.
This time around CI Games will be partnering up with a relatively new developer composed of veterans of the games industry, some of whom came from Avalanche Studios and have worked on Just Cause 3. Lords of the Fallen 2 will be their debut game.
Lords of the Fallen 2: Why CI Games Chose Defiant Studios
CI Games CEO Marek Tymiński said: “We talked to a number of globally respected studios that had shown a strong interest in making the next LotF, and received several solid pitches. We finally decided to move forward with Defiant because we were impressed with their game concept, production expertise, and the pedigree of their developers.”
This is good news for the publisher, considering that it actually had to lay off some staff earlier in February. This was despite the fact that its latest game Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 selling more than one million copies. In light of that, the company downsized to a relatively small team of 30 people for development on future games, including an unannounced tactical shooter game.