By Adrianna Ebert
GDANSK (Reuters) -Shares in Polish video game producer CI Games dropped as much as 18% to a six month low on Friday, adding to heavy losses the day before, following some critical reviews of its newest game "Lords of the Fallen".
The PC version of the game currently has an average rating of 76 on the 100-point Metacritic scale based on 47 reviews, with reviewers generally saying it is well-executed, but some pointing to technical issues that should be improved.
The PlayStation 5 version scores 73 based on 25 reviews.
"Lords of the Fallen is a great soulslike," U.S. video game and entertainment media website IGN said in a review, referring to a subgenre of action role-playing games known for high levels of difficulty and emphasis on environmental storytelling.
"It's (...) new idea of swapping between two versions of the world (...) is an excellent twist to set it apart from the pack. That concept is unfortunately hamstrung by numerous, highly annoying technical issues," it said.
Erste Group analyst Piotr Bogusz said a relatively low average rating and problems with the release on Xbox may hit the game's sales.
"Lords of the Fallen is currently in third place on Steam Global Top Sellers, and user ratings will be key to maintaining the high position (the risk here is also that players would pay attention to the technical side of the game)," Bogusz said.
"The game's total budget (production and marketing) is around 200 million zlotys, and according to our estimates, the company should sell 1.4-1.5 million copies, which, with ratings at that level, could be quite ambitious", he added.
At 0844 GMT, CI Games shares were down 13.6% at 3.89 zlotys. They earlier touched a low of 3.68 zlotys.
The game release for PC and PlayStation 5 is set for Friday. The release on Xbox Series X|S will take place in the following days after a patch is launched.
The price of the game is $69.99 for the standard version, $79.99 for the deluxe, and $249.99 for the collector's version.
CI Games' most popular game series is "Sniper Ghost Warrior", which has sold over 13 million copies. The first version of "Lords of the Fallen", released in 2014, sold over three million copies.