According to Paradox Interactive’s CEO, Ebba Ljungerud, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 most likely won’t be launched during the first half of 2021. In a way, this announcement doesn’t come as a surprise since this year hit developer Hardsuit Labs especially hard, which resulted in the game’s delay more than twice.
Initially, Bloodlines 2 was set to release in the first quarter of 2020. However, it was revealed some time in October 2019 that the game would be delayed. During that announcement, Hardsuit Labs stated that it needed more time in order to further refine and polish the upcoming title, postponing the game instead to later in 2020.
In August of this year, however, the developer once again announced that Bloodlines 2 would be pushed back to 2021 “to ensure the best player experience possible.” This time, Hardsuit Labs didn’t provide a specific release window, but now it appears that fans won’t be able to experience Bloodlines 2 at least until the second half of next year.
In a recent interview with Swedish publication Placera, Ljungerud stated the following: “I do not think it will come in the first half of the year, but we will see.”
He then clarified by saying that the reason for this delay is because publisher Paradox Interactive decided to port Bloodlines 2 on the next-gen consoles, along with the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic caused some complications that just couldn’t be avoided.
As mentioned, 2020 has been a difficult year for Hardsuit, as the studio has experienced several sudden staff exits. More or less a week after it was announced that Bloodlines 2 would be delayed yet again, both Hardsuit Labs and Paradox Interactive made the decision to fire Brian Mitsoda, the game’s narrative lead designer, and Ka’ai Cluney, the creative director.
Mitsoda said that this decision “came as a shock” to him and that he was never given any indication that he was unsuccessful with his work on Bloodlines 2. Once October 2020 arrived, more staff changes followed suit when Cara Ellison, the senior narrative designer for the game, decided to leave the project.
The developer also decided to remove any content by designer Chris Avellone after he was accused of allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting women. Although, Hardsuit said that the content Avellone contributed was only “brief.”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines was released in 2004, and Bloodlines 2 is the highly-anticipated sequel of the cult-hit title. The game was inspired by a tabletop RPG with the same title and is set in the World of Darkness by White World Gaming Studio.
Even though the original game was dearly beloved by its fans, many still criticized it for its numerous technical problems. Now that Bloodlines 2 is in the works, developer Hardsuit Games wants to ensure that the sequel doesn’t have the same problems and that it perfects all the good elements of the first game.
Bloodlines 2 will supposedly require players to make difficult moral decisions that will not only affect them but other characters as well. As such, players have to really think about each and every consequence of their actions before making any life-changing decisions.
It may be disappointing to hear that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 probably won’t be released until much later in 2021, but on the bright side, this means that Hardsuit Labs will have enough time to polish the game to perfection.
