Lords of the Fallen II lands €28.6 million in bank debt that its own sales must repay

The soulslike genre runs on a particular kind of nerve: the willingness to carry everything you have gathered through one more fog gate, knowing a single mistake can cost it all. CI Games is now making that wager at the scale of a company. The Warsaw publisher walked away from its publishing deal with Epic Games in the spring and chose to bring Lords of the Fallen II to market on its own. It has now found the money to finish the job, and the terms tie its balance sheet almost directly to how well the sequel sells.

The money comes as a syndicated bank loan, not a new equity round. Erste Bank Polska and Bank Ochrony Środowiska arranged it, and in the announcement CI Games stresses that it did not issue a single new share to raise it. Marek Tymiński, the company’s founder and chief executive, frames that as the point: shareholders keep their full participation in whatever the game earns, and the banks’ confidence, in his reading, confirms the project’s commercial potential.

The figures explain the stakes. The facility totals €28.6 million and, according to the company, covers everything left between the studio and release: the rest of production, the global marketing campaign and the launch itself. It also refinances all of the group’s existing bank debt. KUKE, Poland’s export credit agency, guarantees 80% of it. The loan matures in August 2027, and CI Games expects to repay it mainly from sales of Lords of the Fallen II, which gives the game only a matter of months after launch to earn back what the banks advanced.

A knight with sword and lantern faces a red dragon in Lords of the Fallen II — Image: CI Games / Hexworks

Tymiński has put his own stake on the table as well. As the largest shareholder, he has committed to holding his entire shareholding for the full term of the financing. “I know how much potential Lords of the Fallen II has,” he said, presenting the lock-up as a statement of faith rather than a formality.

That faith rests on the first game. Lords of the Fallen, made by CI Games’ Hexworks studio and released in 2023, sold more than 2.5 million copies and reached over 8 million players on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The sequel’s path has been less straight. CI Games ended its Epic publishing agreement in April, which opened the PC version to Steam alongside the Epic Games Store, and in June it moved the release from autumn 2026 to early 2027, citing extra polish and a crowded holiday season. A new trailer at Summer Game Fest, meanwhile, pushed the game past 100,000 Steam wishlists within a day.

A fortified bridge leads toward a misty skyline of gothic spires in Lords of the Fallen II — Image: CI Games / Hexworks

Marketing is the next stage. Early next week the company will show a new episode of its “Lifting the Veil” series, featuring members of its Launch Creative Team, a group CI Games says it hired directly from the soulslike community. In December it will announce the exact release date and start the main campaign. Lords of the Fallen II is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

In a genre where every death sends you walking back to recover what you dropped, CI Games has arranged its finances so that only one run really counts.

Tags: CI Games, Hexworks, Lords of the Fallen, Lords of the Fallen II, Marek Tymiński, soulslike games