It’s beginning to look like development hell for CI Games’ Lords of the Fallen 2.
Earlier last week, the publisher CI Games and the title’s latest developer, Defiant Studios, ended their partnership on Lords of the Fallen 2, with the Polish publishing company deciding to finish the game in-house with some outsourcing help. This is only after about a year’s worth of work by Defiant, who was announced back in June of last year as the latest developer for the Nordic Souls-like title.
The break-up doesn’t sound too great, either. CI Games released a press release regarding the end of their partnership with Defiant Studios last Wednesday. Here it is, courtesy of Eurogamer, who translated it from Polish:
"The termination of the agreement was submitted due to inadequate execution by Defiant [of] a key work stage (milestone no. 11), a so-called vertical slice. The quality of the work was lower than expected by the company, as precisely described in the agreement, despite three calls to improve the quality of this stage of work."
If CI Games is to be believed, it would seem that Defiant Studios has failed to make a ‘vertical slice’ worthy of about a year in development. It also notes that despite CI Games asking for improvements, Defiant's work was still lower in quality compared to what the publisher expected.
Of course, Defiant Studios doesn’t quite agree with the statement, stating that they “categorically disagree with the portrayal of Defiant Studios made by CI Games.”
"The team that was working on CI Games' project was comprised of exceedingly talented developers whose work we fully stand behind,” stated Defiant managing director David Grijns in an interview with Eurogamer. “Our team knows how to build quality games as is evident by their key roles in Just Cause 3, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Far Cry 5, Devil May Cry (DmC), and many other top tier projects.”
I have trouble believing that CI Games will be fully capable of finishing the title in-house with outsourcing help, but then again, publishers have pulled off miracles before. That said, I do kind of wonder why they decided to not actively pursue development with Deck13 Interactive once again, the developer behind the original Lords of the Fallen. Deck13 Interactive has proven itself capable in the Souls-like genre, with their latest release The Surge getting a sequel some time this year.
