As most of our readers will recall, Paradox Interactive's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was postponed indefinitely in early 2021 after the ignominious dismissal of its original developer, the Seattle-based Hardsuit Labs. While there's been basically no official news about the game since then, starting from late 2021 rumors began to circulate that the studio Paradox had hired to finish the game was Brighton-based The Chinese Room. You may know The Chinese Room as the creators of archetypal "walking simulator" Dear Esther, although following the layoff of the original staff and acquisition by publisher Sumo Digital in 2018, they're essentially an entirely new company under founder Dan Pinchbeck. That being said, today's brief update from Paradox did not reveal who is making Bloodlines 2. Published just ahead of Summer Game Fest, its main purpose seems to be to remind people that the game is still alive and to announce that they're refunding preorders for its physical editions. It also includes a small batch of fairly unremarkable "post-alpha" screenshots.


As stated, there'll be more news about the revived Bloodlines 2 in September. For now, what we can see is that the game's original website is gone and its Steam page has been stripped down, notably removing the iconic Mr. Damp character from its cover art. One can assume that Hardsuit's original plot has been scrapped, although the game is still set in Seattle.