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Game News Bloodlines 2 no longer being developed by Hardsuit Labs, delayed past 2021

Infinitron

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Tags: Hardsuit Labs; Paradox Interactive; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

Back in August, we learned that Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 had been delayed to 2021 and that its lead narrative designer Brian Mitsoda had been fired alongside creative director Ka’ai Cluney. We would later find out that senior narrative designer Cara Ellison left the project a month later. Since then, there have been zero updates about the game's development, not even an end-of-year summary. After months of speculation, Paradox finally decided to clarify matters today with the announcement that they'd dropped Hardsuit Labs as developer entirely. The game is now delayed indefinitely and no longer scheduled for release this year.

Good morning, everyone.

As you have noticed, we’ve been keeping pretty quiet for a while. With this in mind, the first piece of news we have for you is to confirm that Bloodlines 2 is still in development.

Secondly, we have made the hard decision that Hardsuit Labs will no longer be leading the development of Bloodlines 2 - which also means that we will not be releasing in 2021 as previously planned. Since we cannot at this time communicate a new release date, we've also decided to stop accepting pre-orders for the time being.

This game is very important to us and it has been an ambitious project from the very start. In order to meet our goals for it, we’ve come to the conclusion that a change is needed and, as a result, more development time is required.

We’d like to take this opportunity to honor Hardsuit Labs for their efforts and thank them for their hard work on the project. The studio has done a tremendous job in laying the foundations for the game and we hope that you, the community, will also appreciate their contribution to Bloodlines 2.

We’re thankful for your continuous support throughout the game’s development. We understand how important this is to you, and we’d love to share more with you. As soon as we can, we’ll let you know what the future development team of Bloodlines 2 will look like.​

In their year-end report, Paradox also revealed that they'd hired a new studio to finish the game's development.

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.
What an absolute trainwreck. Who will this new studio partner be, you ask? As suggested by LESS T_T, it might end up being some no-name company that specializes in assisting other developers. If Paradox want a studio with experience in creating action-RPGs, they'd almost certainly have to partner with another publisher. As for Hardsuit Labs, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't survive much longer.
 

_V_

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This was the only rational conclusion to how things were developing. Now we have a clear cut and things can finally move foreward.
If the new studio fails to present a great game, it's only due to the shoddy ground work. Paradox should ask them to start from scratch. That may be the only way you get the game you deserve.
I now have great hope that Bloodlines 2 will turn out as great as all the other surprizse successes that share a similar history.

Just glad I never paid a lot of attention to the project. This trainwreck might be the only entertainment I'll derive from it. I'll keep the popcorn ready.
 

flabbyjack

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mediocrepoet

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The phrase "consent based vampirism" irritates the hell out of me. Did that actually come from somewhere? I haven't really been following this because I expected it to be a disaster since it was announced.
 

flabbyjack

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The phrase "consent based vampirism" irritates the hell out of me. Did that actually come from somewhere? I haven't really been following this because I expected it to be a disaster since it was announced.
Yeah there were a couple of interviews (kinda hard for me to find again) where they were talking about this kind of libtard stuff. The concept of consent-only blood feeding etc seemed to be central to the game's new progressive setting.
 

JarlFrank

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The main audience of vampire fiction is teenage goth girls, and for them it's always consensual even if they say "No Mr Vampire please don't bite me and nuzzle my neck... mmm no please don't turn me into a vampire I don't want that..."
 

waken

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The phrase "consent based vampirism" irritates the hell out of me. Did that actually come from somewhere? I haven't really been following this because I expected it to be a disaster since it was announced.
Yeah there were a couple of interviews (kinda hard for me to find again) where they were talking about this kind of libtard stuff. The concept of consent-only blood feeding etc seemed to be central to the game's new progressive setting.
I don't expect this will change with a different studio.
 

Andhaira

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Wait, why was Mitsoda fired? What about the Kai Lord, why was she fired? And then the other femme 'narrative designer'? Were they having coke induced consent based 3-somes in the studios?

More importantly, what does Annie Doublebear Mitsoda think about all this?
 

Poxmaster

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I am a bit dismayed by this news. I was a great fan of the original Vampire: Bloodlines when it came out back in the day. I got optimistic when I heard that Paradox had bought the rights, and when it was announced that the original writer for Vampire:Bloodlines was going to make a sequel I was very happy.

However it has been increasingly clear that the studio making the game, Hardsuit Labs had some serious internal problems. When in august last year the Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda and Creative Director Ka’ai Cluney got fired it was clear that there was some kind of internal war inside the game studio. While I do not know the details I can not help suspecting that some of the employees of Hardsuit Labs, situated as they are in Seattle have gotten more and more woke and has been trying to push modern progressive politics into the game, something that did not fit the visions Brian Mitsoda had for the game. Given how the left has embraced cancel culture I suspect they staged an internal revolt getting Brian Mitsoda and Ka’ai Cluney fired as they would not change the game in the direction the progressives wanted. Getting in a new creative director in Alexandre Mandryka was most likely a futile attempt by Paradox to rescue development of the game, but since the root of the problems was the employees of Hardsuit Labs it was doomed to fail. It would seem that Paradox has realized that since Hardsuit Labs can not be controlled or directed to make the game they are supposed to make, they had to cut them loose and try to find a more dependable developer that could take over.

It's a shame but I believe that a modern sequel to V:Bl that matched its tone could do very well it would seem that development of V:B2 was taking the game in another unwanted direction. Sometimes it is best to go back to the drawing board or to take a pause instead of making a game nobody wants. I still feel the pain of the disaster that was Dawn of War 3 and would hate to see the same fate happen to the Vampire:Bloodlines franchise.
Sorry for the ramble
 

lukaszek

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please hide this from delt
 

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