World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Shinros]

Apparently the Paradox CEO finally did speak about Bloodlines 2, although this may need a translation.

https://www.avanza.se/placera/teleg...nte-bloodlines-2-slapps-under-1h-2021-vd.html

Spolier: She doesn't know when it's coming out, first says it's unlikely it may be done before June, then strangely says maybe it'll be done sooner somehow (I can't thing of a game that's magically done sooner than expected?).

It's a lot of "...huh?"

This is why it's never a good idea to pre-order stuff, at least in my opinion.

 

[Roguey]

Google translation for posterity:

STOCKHOLM (Nyhetsbyrån Direkt) Paradox CEO Ebba Ljungerud does not believe that Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, whose launch time has been moved forward twice, will be launched during the first half of 2021.

Paradox is the publisher of Bloodlines 2, which is developed by the game studio Hardsuit Labs, of which Paradox owns 33 percent. It was originally intended that the launch would take place in the first quarter of 2020, a time that was later changed to the second half of 2020 and then changed to 2021.

You have left the time quite wide open for when next year the game may come. Is it conscious that you do not dare to promise the first half of the year?

"I do not think it will come in the first half of the year, but we will see", says the CEO.

The schedule for Bloodlines 2 has been affected by both staff dropouts and the pandemic. The delays led to Paradox making the decision to adapt the game also for the new console generations Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X which have been released recently. This adaptation work has in itself contributed to the delay in the launch.

"To be able to develop for the next generation, you have to have development kits from the manufacturers. And I'm pretty sure that both Sony and Microsoft were affected by the pandemic because they did not have many development kits," comments Ebba Ljungerud.

Paradox has earlier this year flagged that the pandemic has affected productivity and that there is a risk that, above all, game titles that have not yet been communicated will be delayed.

And with a second pandemic wave now spreading, there was not much breathing pause, was there?

"It depends a bit on which countries we are talking about, but it was a bit of a breathing pause. Now it will be a bit tougher again and it is not great. At the same time we are building long-term and preferably you would not want any delays at all. part of the business and something we are used to handling ", says Ebba Ljungerud.

In addition to Bloodlines 2 and Surviving the Aftermath, games that were announced as early as 2019, your launch calendar for 2021 looks a bit thin.

"We do not really know how the delays affect yet and we would like to know internally when we can release something before we announce it. It takes longer and becomes more complicated, but it is not the case that it is not possible. And you look at how the accounting "looks like it can be seen that we are investing a lot for the future so there are definitely things in the pipeline. There is a long way to go until next year is over", says Ebba Ljungerud.

Not mentioned: studio does not actually know how to make RPGs.

 

[deama]

I was excited for this earlier this year, but it's slowly turning into shit.

 

[GrainWetski]

Turning into shit? It was doomed to be garbage from the second it was announced.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Vampires are not immune to Corona.

COVID sucks. But in Hardsuit/Paradox's case, it just feels like a convenient excuse for incompetence.

And COVID doesn't explain the firings of Mitsoda and the creative team (even Ellison quitting) in the slightest, that smells more of mismanagement and idiocy.

Funny, blames the pandemic mostly it feels. Also now it's being delayed because it being worked on for PS5 and the new Xbox.

Feels like another excuse - Hardsuit seems to boast a good programming team, it even contracts them out, so for Hardsuit execs to be unaware that work would be needed for next gen feels like it just makes them more short-sighted than they already were.

I was excited for this earlier this year, but it's slowly turning into shit.

It took a sharp dive for me when Mitsoda got fired without warning (and then they hid it), then all the dumb decisions seemed to become sharply apparent.

It kept spiralling downwards until the current rockbottom of hiring Samantha Wallbanger of Mass Effect: Andromeda fame to take Mitsoda's place.

I cared about this title, but now I care only in what new trails of smoke emerge from the dumpsterfire, which I admit, is taking on new levels of morbid amusement.

 

[Wesp5]

It might be even worse! Somebody on Planet Vampire discovered that HSL is looking for a new Audio Director. A job presumely filled until now by Rik Schaffer and his wife from Bloodlines 1 fame. Are they gone now too?

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs/989831-audio-director

 

[Caim]

Maybe the game would've been done already if they didn't fire half their senior staff every few months.

 

[Wunderbar]

Fallout 76 is now out-trainwrecked.

 

[Caim]

Fallout 76 is now out-trainwrecked.

We haven't seen the final product yet, so we don't know if it's more like Fallout 76, No Man's Sky at launch, Anthem or even Warcraft III Reforged.

 

[purupuru]

And here I have been thinking as long as Rik Schaffer sticks around we will at least get something good out of this game.
Ahhhh... I only expected an AA RPG with shitty graphics, bad combat, not-shit writing and some good music, it really shouldn't be that hard to make such a game

 

[Bad Sector]

Maybe the game would've been done already if they didn't fire half their senior staff every few months.

Perhaps they figured out the game isn't that good and their current team wont be able to make it good so they're slowly replacing everyone with the goal to remake everything from scratch with an -eventually- new team but without outright firing everybody at once as that would attract too much attention.

 

[Archibald]

But that means that those not-fired-yet people keep producing shit.

 

[zapotec]

Imho Paradox should scrap this shit and do a grand strategy game about vampires set in the world of darkness.

 

[Ninjerk]

Maybe the game would've been done already if they didn't fire half their senior staff every few months.

Perhaps they figured out the game isn't that good and their current team wont be able to make it good so they're slowly replacing everyone with the goal to remake everything from scratch with an -eventually- new team but without outright firing everybody at once as that would attract too much attention.

Talk about coming up with the most money-wasting option possible. You're probably right.

 

[Infinitron]

It might be even worse! Somebody on Planet Vampire discovered that HSL is looking for a new Audio Director. A job presumely filled until now by Rik Schaffer and his wife from Bloodlines 1 fame. Are they gone now too?

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs/989831-audio-director

Audio director != composer.

 

[HansDampf]

Does it matter at this point?

 

[Wesp5]

Audio director != composer.

Yes, but I think Rik was both on Bloodlines and most people assume he, and his company Womb Music, did the same for Bloodlines 2.

 

[Fedora Master]

Imho Paradox should scrap this shit and do a grand strategy game about vampires set in the world of darkness.

The first GSG where ruler mana actually makes sense.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Even the "Community Ambassador" bailed from the fiery HSL/PDX honkshow.

What is that job title at Paradox? Is that like Forum Moderator 2.0? It's not like they had any info to give to the community, as the community had to hunt for it elsewhere.

But now they have a Real Job™!

 

[Twiglard]

Imho Paradox should scrap this shit and do a grand strategy game about vampires set in the world of darkness.

As in a mix between Total War, NWN2, and CK2? On face value this isn't the worst idea in the world.

 

[Feargus Jewhart]

It might be even worse! Somebody on Planet Vampire discovered that HSL is looking for a new Audio Director. A job presumely filled until now by Rik Schaffer and his wife from Bloodlines 1 fame. Are they gone now too?

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs/989831-audio-director

They also lack a lead producer and a lead game designer.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

A Lead Game Designer?

That... that can't be for Bloodlines 2. It can't be. Right?

 

[CyberModuled]

A Lead Game Designer?

That... that can't be for Bloodlines 2. It can't be. Right?

It seems it's just very general for the entire game studio https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs

On the other hand, given Bloodlines 2 IS the only game they're working on as far as we know, uh...

 

[Roguey]

Yeah that's Bloodlines 2

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs/978972-lead-game-designer

Previous experience owning, prototyping, iterating on, and implementing and balancing player progression systems on RPG titles is preferred.
...
Own game economies, cash/loot, and player XP systems from concept to release.
...
Experience owning, iterating, and tuning game economies, cash/loot, XP, and similar resources.
...
Understanding of AAA and RPG game development pipelines.
Deep understanding of player psychology and game economics.
Strong knowledge of Blueprints scripting and UE4.

After making such a mess with Bloodlines 2, no way Paradox would trust them to make another RPG before the first one's even out.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

You could ask, but you'd get one of their absolutely professional Community Ambassador replies:

"Disclosing when we're going to disclose information isn't something that I'd do as then it's just disclosing dates all the way down, heh. Aside from that, there's no new information I can give you. Like legit, there's nothing I can tell you right now or we'd be telling you it, heh."

Can't imagine why this drama masquerading as gamedev is a complete PR dumpster fire when the people responsible for getting information for the community is trying a bad poker bluff in text.