Sloclap, the well-known independent studio behind the hit martial arts game Sifu, has responded to the community’s ongoing hopes for a sequel. The company clearly explained its decision to shift focus to its new multiplayer football game, Rematch. The developers understand that some Sifu fans were disappointed at first, but the developer stands by their creative direction.
The team said that the studio values working on different kinds of projects rather than sticking to one genre or making endless sequels. The announcement of Rematch surprised many people. The trailer started with the words “from the team behind Sifu,” which led some to expect a direct follow-up to the beloved martial arts game. Unfortunately, that may never be the case.
Unfortuantely, Sifu 2 Is Never Coming
While there were raised hopes for Sifu 2, Sloclap now says it regrets this misunderstanding. The company thinks that if it had told the Sifu community upfront that a sequel wasn’t in the works, it might have lessened some of the disappointment. Even so, Rematch has quickly become popular, reaching over a million players soon after its release on June 19, 2025.
Sloclap’s choice to move on from Sifu comes from their core approach to game development. The studio gave Sifu a lot of support after its launch, spending a year and a half on updates, new content, and a full expansion. This included new difficulty settings, extra game modes, cosmetic options, and many quality-of-life improvements. The developers felt they had done everything they wanted with Sifu and reached a point where it was time to let the game rest.
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The devs explained that Sifu was never meant to be a “forever-game” that would keep getting updates indefinitely. The studio sees the expectation for developers to stay in one genre or keep making sequels as a bigger problem in the industry. Sloclap’s history shows it likes to try different creative projects.
Slocap Isn’t a Company That Makes Sequels
The company’s earlier game, Absolver, also focused on martial arts, which made some people assume it would keep making similar games after Sifu. However, Sloclap says this isn’t how it works. The team values the rare chance to work on projects it truly cares about, a freedom many developers don’t have. This drive to explore new ideas keeps them from what it sees as the “death sentence” of always playing it safe, like trying to copy the success of big franchises over and over.
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Even though Rematch is a big change from their past games, Sloclap points out that their games still share a clear connection. From Absolver to Sifu and now Rematch, their games always feature third-person action with a strong focus on physical movement. Even as a football game, Rematch keeps a realistic, exciting feel, centered on how characters move and how the game responds to player input. The skills it learned making Absolver and Sifu, especially in making combat feel responsive and animations convey impact, directly helped shape Rematch.
