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

[Ezeekiel]

If was up to me, Daniel Vávra would make a VtMB sequel;

If it was up to me he would make every game.

Only if he swears off the controller and gets a second-in-command who knows how to design good combat mechanics.

 

[Fenix]

Can't be bothered to watch it of course. Once again, this could all end up being nothing.

Part you quited looks like political programm, (almost) openly stating - we should bring rw politics in games.
Like if it wasn't there. Probably - on new level? With coordinated effort?

Maybe something like Bureau13 then?

Which one?

 

[TwoEdge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPNft0KQnU&t=2785s

 

[Anthedon]

Wester looks like he has seen some shit.

 

[Roguey]

Text summary:

During the Q&A section of Paradox Interactive's Q3 interim report, the topic of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 inevitably came up. The question asked was simply: "Any news on Bloodlines 2 or its developer?" To which Paradox CFO Alexander Bricca replied, "The new developer is doing quite well and we are happy with the progress of the project now, but it's still quite some time before we can start to talk about release dates."

When Bloodlines 2 was announced in 2019 it was being developed by Hardsuit Labs, but after the sudden firing of two key team members and the departure of another, it was delayed indefinitely and handed to a different studio. Paradox has yet to announce which studio, and that's not going to change any time soon according to Bricca.

"We prefer to give the studio a situation where they can focus fully on the game development," he continued, "and not having to address fans reaching out to them. So therefore we have so far not disclosed the name of the studio and we are very happy to keep it that way for still some time."

PC Gamer guy then speculates that it's Harebrained but that is extremely unlikely because they're a small studio already working on two projects.

 

[Cryomancer]

Daniel Vávra should make his own vampire game, with blackjack and hookers. Fuck Paradox. How many years promising this game and only delivering Fortnite clones and visual novels.

 

[Justicar]

Paradox cant make real games jabronis all they ever did is excel spreadsheet managers.

 

[Vincente]

Paradox cant make real games jabronis all they ever did is excel spreadsheet managers.

Paradox is just the publisher.

How many years promising this game

They said project was greenlit around 2016 and they expected Hardsuit to release a product around 2018 if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Zyondyne]

Daniel Vávra should make his own vampire game, with blackjack and hookers. Fuck Paradox. How many years promising this game and only delivering Fortnite clones and visual novels.

With Farkle and whores*

 

[PlacidDragon]

They said project was greenlit around 2016 and they expected Hardsuit to release a product around 2018 if I'm not mistaken.

Hardsuit Labs was formed in 2015 (i dont remember when exactly).
Paradox bought White Wolf Publishing (owner of VTM) in October of 2015.
In an interview in 2017, Hardsuit stated "We started working on our pitch almost immediately after we heard that Paradox had acquired the IP and I'm thrilled that Paradox recognized our passion and abilities. We are honored to be bringing Bloodlines 2 to fans all over the world"
Paradox acquired a 33 percent share in Hardsuit in January of 2018 for 2 million dollars.

And from then on it was all downhill

 

[ADULF HITLOR FAN KLUB]

Wester looks like he has seen some shit.

Maybe he hails from Malmö.

 

[Alphons]

Wester looks like he has seen some shit.

Probably Bloodlines 2.

 

[Jenkem]

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-new...-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-progress-3097313
this article is mainly about what Roguey already posted above but it contains this tidbit:

Last month, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester revealed that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was nearly cancelled in early 2021. After stating that Paradox was “prepared to close production completely”, he added that “we got a pitch that we thought was convincing enough to run”. Now, Wester has “very good hopes that it will be a good game that meets the players’ expectations”.

Vampire: The Masquerade® - Bloodlines™ 2 finna be BUSSIN'

no cap

 

[Tyranicon]

At this point I'll just make my own damn vampire rpg.

 

[mondblut]

Paradox cant make real games jabronis all they ever did is excel spreadsheet managers.

Excel spreadsheet managers are the best kind of games, fool.

Problem is, paracux is increasingly failing even at that.

 

[Justicar]

Paradox cant make real games jabronis all they ever did is excel spreadsheet managers.

Excel spreadsheet managers are the best kind of games, fool.

Problem is, paracux is increasingly failing even at that.

Tetris has better gameplay than their "games"

 

[DeepOcean]

Man, first EA invented the term surprise mechanics, now Paradox invented the surprise developer.

 

[mondblut]

Man, first EA invented the term surprise mechanics, now Paradox invented the surprise developer.

They are just desperate to salvage what's left of that Bloodlines 2 hype before it died down for good. Prolly went shopping for any dev capable of making any Vampire-related project to fill the gap. We are lucky, I guess. Could have been Shower With Your Vampiric Dad Simulator, or Vampire: The Monopoly.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

so, someone is working on the game and they won't even say who it is?

 

[Fargus]

Man, first EA invented the term surprise mechanics, now Paradox invented the surprise developer.

And both of them practice surprise buttsex on their fans.

 

[Roguey]

so, someone is working on the game and they won't even say who it is?

Bloodlines 2 had secretly been in development for three years until it was announced.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

Bloodlines 2 had secretly been in development for three years until it was announced.

Considering that the game is already announced there's not a lot of reason to keep the developers a secret. The only speculation I can make is that the developers are relatively unknown, so Paradox is concerned that revealing them without an accompanied gameplay trailer would invite more criticism than trust from the audience. Likely they're waiting until they have a watertight trailer to show before announcing who it is. It also confirms that it's not any sort of public-darling studio. If it was Obsidian for example they would've mentioned it the day they signed the contract.

But man, this must be one of the biggest landmines a publisher has ever stepped onto. The WoD IP itself is doing fine in the gaming world. Not great, but fine. Their CYOA games have completely monopolized the CYOA fandom after the success that was Parliament of Knives, Swansong is looking solid so far, the visual novels by Draw Distance are... there. There's no solid main-course RPG like Redemption yet, but there's been plenty of little appetizers that were well-received. If a competent single player non-text-based RPG were released right now, it would've been the perfect coup de grace. But trusting Mitsoda and some fledgling dev studio to deliver on that was beyond naive. The biggest red flag should've been the promise of a sequel to Bloodlines instead of just making a new title a la Swansong. That "Bloodlines 2" tag attracts way too much unwanted attention, especially since a game with themes and humor like what we see in Bloodlines can't be released in today's climate without being chewed out by the press. It was doomed to fail from the start and what's worse is that Bloodlines fans will never let them live it down.

 

[Zombra]

There's not a lot of reason to keep the developers a secret.

On the other hand, there's no reason at all not to.

The number of people who:
* are hyped enough about the game to care who the developer is;
and
* will boycott (abandon) the game over not being told immediately
is statistically zero.

 

[Roguey]

Considering that the game is already announced there's not a lot of reason to keep the developers a secret. The only speculation I can make is that the developers are relatively unknown, so Paradox is concerned that revealing them without an accompanied gameplay trailer would invite more criticism than trust from the audience. Likely they're waiting until they have a watertight trailer to show before announcing who it is. It also confirms that it's not any sort of public-darling studio. If it was Obsidian for example they would've mentioned it the day they signed the contract.

Freedom to walk away without anyone's feelings getting hurt if development turns into another clusterfuck.

But yeah, those reasons likely apply, especially if it's The Chinese Room like the discord rumor claims (don't want people thinking this is a walking sim which many people absolutely will if it's not accompanied by a trailer showcasing combat).

Edit: more smoke for the fire https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/conflict-at-the-top-of-paradox-interactive/153329/120

After a seeing a few rumors on the net, I followed-up with a dev friend based in Brighton who said The Chinese Room, the walking-sim studio that all but shut down back in 2017 before being bought by Sumo Digital, is the unannounced team working on Bloodlines 2. It sounds like a shocking fit but maybe, given they’re essentially a new team, we shouldn’t expect any of their future games to resemble their previous work.

 

[Delterius]

There's not a lot of reason to keep the developers a secret.

On the other hand, there's no reason at all not to.

The number of people who:
* are hyped enough about the game to care who the developer is;
and
* will boycott (abandon) the game over not being told immediately
is statistically zero.

What about forgotten pre-orders though? I still wouldn't want to rock the boat if there's just, say, 20k people worldwide who didn't refund.