After the first game (which was a passable Souls-clone with two million sales), Deck13 moved on to work on The Surge (which was a good decision; they are working on the sequel), and so far, it seemed that CI Games, formerly known as City Interactive, would work on the second Lords of the Fallen internally, they decided otherwise.

The publisher announced that the development will be handled by Defiant Studios, which was founded by David Grijns (Just Cause 3 director at Avalanche) in 2016, composed of a „veteran staff with proven track records in developing top-selling AAA games.” The publisher considers this decision an important step towards making the sequel high-quality.

Marek Tymiński, the CEO of CI Games, says they „talked to a number of globally respected studios that had shown a strong interest in making the next Lords of the Fallen, and received several solid pitches,” and they chose Defiant because they „were impressed with their game concept, production expertise, and the pedigree of their developers.” Grijns is happy to „commit the studio to developing a great game in a well-established franchise.”

We have a question, though: is Lords of the Fallen a „well-established franchise?”

Source: CI Games