Back in 2019, Paradox Interactive announced Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 as the followup to the cult classic RPG Bloodlines from 2004. The title was supposed to launch in 2020 but has been hit with numerous delays since then, with the company announcing in August that the game would finally make its way to the public in 2021. However, these plans have once again changed with Paradox announcing that the game won"t release this year after all, and that the lead developer has been replaced.
Apart from disclosing its finances for 2020 in its earning call, Paradox Interactive announced that despite a record year, its teams have found it difficult to keep up with the pace of production. As such, it has also postponed release dates for several announced and unannounced games, to allow development teams to focus on delivering polished experiences for gamers.
The lead development studio Hardsuit Labs for Bloodlines 2 will no longer be working on the project, with the replacement not named as of yet. Paradox CEO Ebba Ljungerud went on to say that:
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.
This news will likely be disappointing to fans of the series and switching a lead developer in such late stages of game development could also point to more significant issues in the process. The reason for parting ways with the developer on this project hasn"t been disclosed either. A new release date hasn"t been revealed as of yet, but we will likely learn more later this year.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is slated for launch on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, as well as Xbox Series consoles and PlayStation 5.