Speculation is still brewing around the demonic statue Geoff Keighley has planted in the Mojave desert ahead of The Game Awards this week, and Lords of the Fallen studio CI Games is the latest to chip in.
Keighley teased the statue at the start of the month with the words “regal.inspiring.thickness”, and its demonic lights and skeletal figures had fans guessing which game it was related to, with Diablo 4 and God of War being top guesses.
Yet these were ruled out a day later, with further guesses including Sony’s forthcoming shooter Saros, or even Doom. Other studios have even jumped on the bandwagon, with Devolver quipping: “We made it out of the bones of most of our interns and the remaining interns put it in the desert”.
Perhaps the best evidence we have for the statue is a new reply from The Game Awards account, which states: “The [blank] are silent. [Blank] bleeds. New [blank] stir.” What could it mean?
CI Games founder and CEO Marek Tyminski has now stepped in, not because the statue is related to the studio’s forthcoming Soulslike Lords of the Fallen 2, but because the studio hopes it’s related to something from Elden Ring maker FromSoftware.
“Flattered so many think we’re behind that statue,” Tyminski wrote on social media. “Can confirm it’s not us, we’re just as hyped as you are. Devs are praying it’s something From. Huge respect to them and we dream of reaching that level one day.”
Tyminski added “big news” is on the way for both Lords of the Fallen and its sequel, adding: “We’ve listened. Soon it’s time to reveal.”
So could it really be something from FromSoftware? The DLC for Elden Ring spin-off Nightreign has already been released, and the statue doesn’t look related to either the Elden Ring Tarnished Edition or Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods, both due next year.
More likely, Tyminski is simply hoping for some positive attention in aligning the studio’s work with that of FromSoftware.
Lords of the Fallen released back in 2023 and received a two star review from Eurogamer. While the studio has put in work to improve its poor launch day performance, it remains an unoriginal imitator of FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games.