Paradox Interactive released its 2020 year-end report today, in which the company reveals that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been delayed out of 2021 and is no longer being developed by Hardsuit Labs. This follows the removal of Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda and Creative Director Ka’ai Cluney this past August in another setback to the follow-up of a cult-classic RPG.
Paradox states that a collaboration with a ‘new studio partner’ has been made to finish work on the game, although no other details are given as to who the new developer is and what their background is. The Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 game website: www.bloodlines2.com now redirects to maintenance.paradoxplaza.com as the new details are worked out.
While Paradox as a whole reported increased profits and revenues year-over-year, the pandemic has negatively affected some games in development in addition to the struggles that Bloodlines 2 already appeared to be facing. The full report can be found on Paradox’s website, you can view the portion relevant to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 below.
At the same time as we have had a record year, the ongoing corona pandemic has, as mentioned before, had a mixed effect on our business. The inflow of new players was during the beginning of the pandemic high, which initially had a positive impact on our sales, but the increased player base also creates a long-term remaining value. At the same time, our studio organization in particular has found it difficult to maintain the usual production pace. We have therefore chosen to postpone several planned but not communicated releases to ensure the right quality, which postpones the release dates during 2021. For us, it is crucial that our games are well received by the players, so we always choose, if possible, to give our development studios the time required to achieve our quality goals.
This also affects the development of Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, where we communicated a delay during the third quarter of 2020. We have now chosen to postpone the release of the game further, and we will not be launching the game in 2021. We have also decided that Hardsuit Labs will no longer be leading the development of Bloodlines 2, and we have started a collaboration with a new studio partner to finish work on the game. This has been a difficult decision, but we are convinced that it is the right way forward to do the game justice.
As a fan of the Vampire: The Masquerade Live-Action and Table-Top RPG games, along with the previous Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines game, it’s sad to see that something that has been in development hell has been pushed back to an unknown time in the future. Development Studio changes are also worrying as this could mean a lot of issues with development or a complete reworking of the game, essentially starting over from square one.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was scheduled for release on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
