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

[Roguey]

I'm surprised they haven't released any kind of news. You don't need video, screenshots or even concept art. Just do twitter/steam posts of VtMB2 fluff on characters, locations, features, etc.

I don't understand if the radio silence approach is some kind of marketing 3.0 tactic, or if whoever's involved just doesn't care.

At the very least, it signals to me that things are so much in flux that they don't want to eat their words later.

As noted in today's Q&A, the cancellation of Hardsuit's Bloodlines 2 demoralized Paradox so severely that they decided to go ultra-conservative on announcements for everything they're doing from now on. None of that stuff will be applicable to what will actually get released.

Is that a livestream Q&A? Would be pretty interested in reading it if a text copy is available.

Are they indicating that the new devs won't be using any of Hardsuit's stuff? Starting over from zero is pretty drastic. Makes you wonder what happened.

Yeah, no transcript though a lot of this is my own interpretation. What was said was

No direct reference to Bloodlines 2 but they did say that from now on there will be a much shorter time frame between announcement and release, that they'll announce a game only when they're certain of the quarter it's going to be released,

I believed they started from scratch based on this game dev's thoughts and Cricket McBangle's post.

 

[Victor1234]

Paradox released their latest financial report. Profits are up and they have 15 games in the pipeline (Bloodlines 2, Hunter, 2 from Harebrained, Age of Wonders 4, 10 others I have no idea about). No direct reference to Bloodlines 2 but they did say that from now on there will be a much shorter time frame between announcement and release, that they'll announce a game only when they're certain of the quarter it's going to be released, and they have 3-6 releases currently planned for 2023.

I saw in the report that profit was helped to a large extent by foreign currency arbitrage (weak Swedish currency, and they earn most of their money abroad) and that they cut the staff from 721 to 656 in 2022. A 10% staff cut probably helped save on salaries, although the cost of producing their output dropped by 14% (breakdown of salaries vs other stuff is not included).

Doing more with less, I guess.

 

[Semiurge]

Made you look. There is no concrete evidence of this turd's progress. Now lock this thread down.

 

[Roguey]

Made you look. There is no concrete evidence of this turd's progress. Now lock this thread down.

It is against Codex policy to lock threads, joindate:2020.

Non-news teasing: the former Bioware guy hints at the secret project

CURRENT JOB: Principal Narrative Designer, TCR, on <REDACTED>

 

[Semiurge]

Made you look. There is no concrete evidence of this turd's progress. Now lock this thread down.

It is against Codex policy to lock threads, joindate:2020.

There's a whole subforum of locked threads here. This thread could easily take a little sabbatical in there, for about a year or for as long as is necessary.

 

[Roguey]

There's a whole subforum of locked threads here. This thread could easily take a little sabbathical in there, for about a year or for as long as is necessary.

Retardo'd threads don't come back and they're no longer available to the public.

 

[Semiurge]

There's a whole subforum of locked threads here. This thread could easily take a little sabbathical in there, for about a year or for as long as is necessary.

Retardo'd threads don't come back and they're no longer available to the public.

I'm sure there's no technical limitation keeping them there permanently, it's more a matter of will. Considering how this farce will end in a tragedy, retardo seems like the perfect resting place.

 

[sosmoflux]

This thread has stuck with me through some tough times. Don't you dare deprive us of its endless disappointment.

 

[Nano]

I'm sure there's no technical limitation keeping them there permanently, it's more a matter of will. Considering how this farce will end in a tragedy, retardo seems like the perfect resting place.

Who the hell shit in your cornflakes this morning?

 

[jakkis]

Sensible went from cannon fodder and mega-lo-mania to SWOS

 

[Semiurge]

This thread has stuck with me through some tough times. Don't you dare deprive us of its endless disappointment.

Don't give up hopw.

 

[Cross]

Made you look. There is no concrete evidence of this turd's progress. Now lock this thread down.

It is against Codex policy to lock threads, joindate:2020.

Non-news teasing: the former Bioware guy hints at the secret project

CURRENT JOB: Principal Narrative Designer, TCR, on <REDACTED>

Judging from his Twitter feed, he's in favor of gender transitions for children and draconian censorship. Another quality hire. Though him being a writer on modern BioWare games should already have been disqualifying.

It just occurred to me that The Chinese Room is British. Apart from Deus Ex, it's hard to think of a game that feels more distinctly American than Bloodlines. So Paradox hired a British developer of walking simulators who have never made an actual game to produce a game steeped in American culture.

This game is going to be a disaster.

 

[Semiurge]

Made you look. There is no concrete evidence of this turd's progress. Now lock this thread down.

It is against Codex policy to lock threads, joindate:2020.

Non-news teasing: the former Bioware guy hints at the secret project

CURRENT JOB: Principal Narrative Designer, TCR, on <REDACTED>

Judging from his Twitter feed, he's in favor of gender transitions for children and draconian censorship. Another quality hire. Though him being a writer on modern BioWare games should already have been disqualifying.

It just occurred to me that The Chinese Room is British. Apart from Deus Ex, it's hard to think of a game that feels more distinctly American than Bloodlines. So Paradox hired a British developer of walking simulators who have never made an actual game to produce a game steeped in American culture.

This game is going to be a disaster.

He uses the term >REDACTED<

 

[Tyranicon]

So Paradox hired a British developer of walking simulators who have never made an actual game to produce a game steeped in American culture.

I mean, it's set in Seattle, so it's more Canadian than it is American.

Although I do hope that they do what the Hitman devs do, and the "American" setting is some bastard child 1950's Euro perception of America. I love that shit.

He uses the term >REDACTED<

What is the connotation behind that term? I just thought it was from people who read SCP Foundation once upon a time, and other similiar fiction.

 

[Roguey]

Judging from his Twitter feed, he's in favor of gender transitions for children and draconian censorship. Another quality hire. Though him being a writer on modern BioWare games should already have been disqualifying.

All writers in the game industry are like this now. Going to be this way no matter what.

It just occurred to me that The Chinese Room is British. Apart from Deus Ex, it's hard to think of a game that feels more distinctly American than Bloodlines. So Paradox hired a British developer of walking simulators who have never made an actual game to produce a game steeped in American culture.

Eh, plenty of European devs make games that take place in the US. Coteries/Shadows of New York was done by Poles. Swansong was done by the French. The Americans had their chance and they botched it, too expensive.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

The entire world grows up watching American TV etc. at this point, so I'd agree that a British dev isn't necessarily a bad sign.

I'd be a lot more worried about their politics.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Retardo'd threads don't come back

Wrong.

 

[Roguey]

Updating you all that there will be no update yet:

Bloodlines won't be at this announcement show. We'll have more information to share at a later date however.

Given its alleged late-2023 release date, March is too early to nail the quarter. Could be Q3, more likely to be be Q4, could slip into Q1 2024.

 

[Cricket McBangle]

Updating you all that there will be no update yet:

Bloodlines won't be at this announcement show. We'll have more information to share at a later date however.

Given its alleged late-2023 release date, March is too early to nail the quarter. Could be Q3, more likely to be be Q4, could slip into Q1 2024.

Also, Harebrained confirmed to be showing up to this so that pretty much eliminates them as the Bloodlines 2 developer which is The Chinese Room.

 

[Roguey]

Also, Harebrained confirmed to be showing up to this so that pretty much eliminates them as the Bloodlines 2 developer which is The Chinese Room.

Harebrained is currently working on two projects. (though the other one is almost certainly not Bloodlines 2)

 

[user]

Maybe they finally realized that bloodlines will only truly shine as a strategy game and are keeping it as a last moment surprise.
I love speculating, so much hype around this, please keep this thread alive forever

 

[sosmoflux]

Do you think heads have cooled enough to get Mitsoda back?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Also, Harebrained confirmed to be showing up to this so that pretty much eliminates them as the Bloodlines 2 developer which is The Chinese Room.

Harebrained is currently working on two projects. (though the other one is almost certainly not Bloodlines 2)

Any chances for a new entry in the SRR series?

 

[Lambach]

Any chances for a new entry in the SRR series?

Haven't heard a single peep about it, it's like they forgot they own the IP. I haven't even seen a troll "Harebraibed developer here, dumping info on the new SR game" post on 4chan or something like that.

 

[Roguey]

Any chances for a new entry in the SRR series?

Haven't heard a single peep about it, it's like they forgot they own the IP. I haven't even seen a troll "Harebraibed developer here, dumping info on the new SR game" post on 4chan or something like that.

They don't own the IP and never did.

Yeah, Microsoft has owned Shadowrun since 1999 https://web.archive.org/web/2007031...ft.com/presspass/press/1999/jan99/fasapr.mspx

Microsoft owns Shadowrun and now also own multiple RPG studios. It seems unlikely that they would license out their IP to what is now a rival studio. Circumstances change.

Unless things have changed, the thing they're about to announce is an original IP. Their other game might be a licensed title, but it's more likely to be a World of Darkness game than a property owned by Microsoft (Shadowrun and Battletech).