The Dark Souls of development issues
Back in 2014, little known publisher CI Games (alongside of developer Deck13) put out Lords of the Fallen: a clearly Dark Souls-inspired romp with a viking twist. It resonated with a lot of folks, including Dark Souls publisher Bandai Namco, and naturally, plans for a sequel began. But all is not well in CI Games land (which happens to he Poland).
According to Eurogamer, the US-based Defiant Studios was in, and then out. Defiant Studios was tapped to tackle Lords of the Fallen 2, but CI Games has since taken the project back under their wing (note that they scaled down operations early last year to roughly 30 employees). CI Games says it was because of an “inadequate execution” of a vertical slice of Lords of the Fallen 2, but Defiant Studios predictably does not agree with that assessment.
Defending his honor, Defiant Studios lead David Grijns notes that he stands behind his developers, who have been given “key roles” for games like Just Cause 3, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Far Cry 5, and DmC: Devil May Cry. He avoids breaking legal obligations and stops short after stating that they “categorically disagree with [CI Games’] portrayal” of the studio.
We’re now in a weird situation where Deck13 is ready to unleash the cool looking Surge sequel out into the world with Focus Home Interactive (which in itself aped Lords of the Fallen with a sci-fi twist) and CI Games is left with a troublesome project.
Lords of the Fallen 2 ditches developer and hits the ropes again [Eurogamer]
