It looks like Lords of the Fallen 2 is facing yet another major obstacle, as the team at Defiant Studios is no longer working on the highly anticipated sequel to the acclaimed Dark Souls-like game from 2014.
The young gaming company started developing Lords of the Fallen 2 back in June 2018, but the final results of the nearly one-year work have seemingly disappointed the upcoming game's publisher and co-developer CI Games to the point of breaking the contract with Defiant. "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," CI Games said in an official press release translated from Polish by Eurogamer. "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."
We didn't have to wait long to hear from Defiant, as the developers "categorically disagree with the portrayal of Defiant Studios made by CI Games," Founder and Managing Director David Grijns told Eurogamer. "The team that was working on CI Games' project was comprised of exceedingly talented developers whose work we fully stand behind," Grijns added. "As we intend to abide by our contractual confidentiality obligations, at this time we cannot expand further on this matter."
Defiant is an independent AAA studio founded in New York in 2016 by the developers who previously worked on high-profile titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Far Cry 5, and DmC: Devil May Cry.
From now on, Lords of the Fallen 2 will be developed internally by the Polish game developer, with outsourcing help – so better don't expect any LotF2 announcements at this year's E3 in Los Angeles.