CI Games establishes new studio to develop Lords of the Fallen 2
CI Games has established a new studio to develop Lords of the Fallen 2
CI Games has announced Hexworks, a brand new game development studio based in Barcelona and Bucharest, which are working Lords of the Fallen 2.
“It’s been a long time since we started talking about Lords of the Fallen 2 and trying different ideas," said CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski. "I am very excited for us to be able to announce the new studio that has been already at work for the last half of the year and made significant progress.
"Initially we decided to keep that quiet as we didn’t want to bring that to public eyes before we would build the core team and before we would all agree on the details of the first project and move forward with our vision. So, this is the time to officially say we are here and we’re here to stay.”
Creative director Cezar Virtosu and executive producer Saul Gascon lead a Hexworks team of around 25 people including veteran staff with AAA game development experience, and the team will focus on role-playing games.
The studio’s debut will be Lords of the Fallen 2. Inspired by "community feedback for the first game," the game will be a shift from the original’s "power fantasy" to dark fantasy.
The sequel promises a more challenging combat experience, and something "Soulsborne and Souls-like" communities will enjoy, according to the announcement.
This isn't the first time a new studio has worked on the title. Deck 13 was the developer of the original game but didn't return for the sequel as it went to work on The Surge.
The sequel lost its original executive producer in 2015, Tomasz Gop. He was the senior producer on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and was heavily involved in the first game in the series.
Development of Lords of the Fallen 2 was then handed over to Defiant Studios, based in New York, and was set to be released in 2017.
By 2019, Defiant Studios was no longer involved. CI Games stated at the time it was due to "inadequate execution" of development goals.
At that point, the plan was to finish off the project in-house at CI Games.
Additional information on Lords of the Fallen 2 will be provided at a later date. The fantasy action-RPG is targeted for next-gen consoles and PC.