Lords of the Fallen 2's director has been let go, and the size of the sequel to 2014's action RPG drastically reduced by developer CI Games.

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"I was let go because of a reduction in team, in scope, in budget, in business approach," Tomasz Gop told Eurogamer. "Almost two years I've been working on the sequel and I have not seen it leave the concept/vision stage. I was working on something I was really 100 per cent into and we were not producing the game."There came a time when Sniper [Ghost Warrior 3] was the most important thing for CI, the next big hit. It also might have been the reason why Lords was not progressing as fast. Of course it's not uncommon knowledge that [SGW3] didn't go exactly according to plan, especially if it goes for sales. And here we are." Sniper Ghost Warrior 3's shortcomings , which included poor graphics, technical issues, and a lack of multiplayer at launch, have been put down to its overly ambitious scope."The market is really changing, because you see some major releases, the real blockbusters, doing great numbers, but then you have games that are called triple-A but in fact they're not triple-A by today's standards - maybe they were by three year's ago standards - and they are suffering by not really selling as many units as anyone projected," CI Games head Marek Tyminski told the site."Definitely Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is one of them but there are several examples, even lately - without me telling you which games I'm talking about there are definitely several examples. So the market is changing, it's consolidating among the largest releases."Considering that, I don't see CI Games being able to, in the near future, raise even more the production budget and marketing budget and really being able to compete at that blockbuster level. But definitely the studio's ambitions, and the people who are working for CI, we definitely want to make great games."Tyminski told Eurogamer that "a very small team" is currently working on the sequel.Lords of the Fallen 2 was originally expected to launch this year ; looks like we'll be waiting a while to see it come to fruition, if it comes to fruition at all.

Lucy O'Brien is Games & Entertainment Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. Follow her on Twitter.