Over the months, it seems that we are getting further and further away from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 launching. The supernatural RPG was originally supposed to be released in 2020, before it was postponed to 2021. Now, publisher Paradox Interactive says it won’t happen either. But the real shock? Paradox is removing developer Hardsuit Labs from Bloodlines 2 and will be finalizing the project in a different studio.
“Now we have decided to postpone the game launch even further and we will not be launching the game in 2021,” Paradox said in its year-end earnings report. “We also decided that Hardsuit Labs will no longer lead the development of Bloodlines 2 and we started a collaboration with a new partner studio to finish the work on the game. This was a difficult decision, but we are convinced that it is the right way to do justice to match. ”
It looks like Bloodlines 2 has been in trouble for a long time. Shortly after announcing the first delay last year, Paradox revealed that it had fired the game’s narrative leader, Brian Mitsoda, and creative director, Ka’ai Cluney. Mitsoda was the cornerstone of the sequence’s claims to legitimacy, having been a writer and designer of the original.
Paradox does not give any indication of who may be developing the game right now, nor does it mention a new release date. A statement on the Bloodlines 2 website says: “As we are currently unable to communicate a new release date, we have also decided to stop accepting orders for now.” (Although at the time this post was published, the site was down for maintenance.)
So, is Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 coming out? Who knows! Lauren hoped we could hear a little bit about it at the next Paradox Interactive game show in March. Despite having received this horrible news, I can’t imagine that they would want it on everyone’s radar right now.
Disclosure: Former RPS columnist Cara Ellison was previously a narrative designer in Bloodlines 2.