It’s an understatement to say that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has had rocky development since changing developers but it was almost cancelled says Paradox CEO, Fredrik Wester.
The company’s CEO revealed in an interview with Nyhetsbyrån Direkt (via Avanza) that the publisher almost cancelled the game altogether when they took back control of the game’s development. Last year, Paradox decided in a joint decision with Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2‘s original developer, Hardsuit Labs that they would part ways after five years of development. The company even terminated the game’s creative director, Ka’ai Cluney and writer, Brian Mitsoda, who wrote the original in 2004.
“When we lifted the game from the original developer, we had a long review in case we should end the game or run it further,” he said. “Then we were actually prepared to close the production completely. But we got a ‘pitch’ that we thought was convincing enough to run. played on and we have very good hopes that it will be a good game that meets the players’ expectations.”
The Paradox CEO did not reveal who would be finishing Hardsuit Labs’ work on the game, only that the studio is “a very reputable and talented developer”. Last year, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was delayed to 2021 because of “organizational changes” and six months later in February of this year it was delayed again with no confirmation of a release year. The reason behind the second delay was due to disruptions in development caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have 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,” Paradox said in a statement.
“This has been a difficult decision, but we are convinced that it is the right way forward to do the game justice.”
Wester added during the interview that Paradox is holding off investing more into the RPG genre until they see how Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 performs.
“I would like to see how Bloodlines is received before we bet the next big money in the genre. There is a huge desire for good games in the role-playing game genre so I absolutely do not want to close any doors. But I would like to see what happens, what can we do and how Bloodlines [2] is received,“ Wester said in a Nyhetsbyrån Direkt interview.
