Lords of the Fallen 2 team has been downsized and its scope reduced
Souls-like sequel appears to be in dire straights.
Lords of the Fallen 2 was announced back in late 2014 – shortly after the release of the series' first instalment. As is normally the case, the game was to be more ambitious in scope compared to its predecessor, though according to a new report that's no longer the case.
Speaking to Eurogamer, CI Games' Tomasz Gop – who worked on the first game and was working on the new one – has been let go from the studio. "I was let go because of a reduction in team, in scope, in budget, in business approach," he said.
"Almost two years I've been working on the sequel and I have not seen it leave the concept/vision stage. I was working on something I was really 100 per cent into and we were not producing the game."
You may recall last week that CI Games admitted that their recent Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 release was too ambitious for the size of the team. Gop reiterated this point, suggesting that perhaps Lords of the Fallen 2 was also overly-ambitious.
"There came a time when Sniper [Ghost Warrior 3] was the most important thing for CI, the next big hit," he continued. "It also might have been the reason why Lords was not progressing as fast. Of course it's not uncommon knowledge that [SGW3] didn't go exactly according to plan, especially if it goes for sales. And here we are."
Eurogamer also spoke to the studio's Marek Tyminski, who said that while the studio intends not to compete on a blockbuster scale, it will move to focus on the quality of its products, within the limits of what it can feasibly achieve.
The first Lords of the Fallen was a decent, if unremarkable Souls-like. Tyler described it as "a competent action RPG with real challenge that lets you get a little too powerful – that is, if your PC is powerful enough to run it without crashing."
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.