Fans of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines have been waiting for a long time to see a sequel. I think most fans gave up on the idea of a sequel ever coming to fruition. However, the first game grew as a cult hit, and here we are, nearing the release of a proper sequel installment. With that said, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has not been an easily developed game. The journey to see this title reach the finish line almost came to a complete stop.
If you’ve been following this game, you likely remember that Hardsuit Labs first worked on this title for Paradox Interactive. Things seemed to have been moving along, but we saw several hiccups towards the end of 2020. These included delays and positions from the studio being departed, and the game was ultimately removed from Hardsuit labs in 2021. We knew the game wasn’t killed off but was handed over to another studio. That studio was being kept a secret until 2023 when Paradox Interactive unveiled that The Chinese Room had taken control of development.
We’re learning more about why the game jumped development studios. This information comes from an interview on Gamesindustry.biz with Paradox’s deputy CEO, Mattias Lilja. According to the interview, Mattias noted that this move was drastic, and the last step before the game came to a complete halt. However, Paradox felt that they had a good game, but maybe it wasn’t a good fit with their team.
Pressing on for more information about what The Chinese Room offered that Hardsuit Labs couldn’t, it mainly boiled down to stability.
Hardsuit Labs has many qualities – [but] they’ve never done something on this scale. So that was basically building the team as they were building the game and that turned out to be very tough. And they were not shy to say so. Chinese Room is a more stable developer, so they could attack this with more confidence I’d say. And we had more confidence that they could deliver what we saw, the early work that they did. So it’s the experience with this type of game. I mean, if you look at the Chinese Room… Crafting a game with this very tight story and a tight setting is very much what they do. – Mattias Lilja
Currently, we’re left waiting on when exactly we can pick up a copy of this game. At the moment, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is set to launch at some point in 2025. You’ll find the game available on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series X/S platforms when it is released.
