Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 delayed until at least 2022, dev team replaced

[09philj]

You may remember last year that Paradox fired Bloodlines 2's narrative lead and creative director. Well, now they've also chucked Hardsuit as the main development team, and delayed the game past 2021.

There's no real indication as to what's caused this, although given the way development has gone so far I suspect one party thought that Bloodlines 2 needed a significant rework that the other party was unwilling to consider.

Here's the Escapist article: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2...ps-its-hardsuit-dev-team-delayed-beyond-2021/

 

[Gordon_4]

A most unfortunate turn of events.

 

[Dalisclock]

You may remember last year that Paradox fired Bloodlines 2's narrative lead and creative director. Well, now they've also chucked Hardsuit as the main development team, and delayed the game past 2021.

There's no real indication as to what's caused this, although given the way development has gone so far I suspect one party thought that Bloodlines 2 needed a significant rework that the other party was unwilling to consider.

Well, I guess I can say I'm glad I wasn't hyped for this. Sorry for anyone who was because it's not looking good right now.

 

[Chimpzy]

Wow, changing hands this late into the game. This is going to be a trainwreck, isn't it?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, they can't really make a new VTM:B game without the company having a kerfuffle, it wouldn't be true to the original.

 

[Dalisclock]

Wow, changing hands this late into the game. This is going to be a trainwreck, isn't it?

You're welcome.

 

[Neuromancer]

Development does seem to have been a complete trainwreck given all there was an announcement then years of nothing.

Though I have to wonder what this leads to. Are they going to hand over the assets and design documents to a new developer and see what happens?

 

[BrawlMan]

A most unfortunate turn of events.

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[MrCalavera]

 

[deleted20220709]

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[Samtemdo8]

System Shock 3 is dead.

Cyberpunk 2077 is hated.

Now this

No one can make an Immersive Sim RPG for shit anymore.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

It's cursed. Yeet it lest we bear the same infliction. To make sure.

There's a couple of Vampire Masquerade VNs popping up on the PSN store lately tho, so some people are getting work done somewhere on the IP. Whether they're good or not is anyone's guess however.

 

[laggyteabag]

Hmm.

This doesn't bode well for the game.

Games are delayed all of the time. Games are cancelled sometimes. Its very rare that you hear of a game's development team being switched out. Expectations firmly in the negatives.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

The bit about thanking Hardsuit for their “tremendous job in laying the foundations” seems a bit disingenuous considering, oh idk, they replaced them.

Hopefully things work out by next year.

 

[09philj]

System Shock 3 is dead.

Cyberpunk 2077 is hated.

Now this

No one can make an Immersive Sim RPG for shit anymore.

I think Arkane made a pretty good case for themselves with Dishonored and Prey. Deathloop looks interesting so far, although I think it's going to be lighter on the RPG elements.

 

[CriticalGaming]

You may remember last year that Paradox fired Bloodlines 2's narrative lead and creative director. Well, now they've also chucked Hardsuit as the main development team, and delayed the game past 2021.

There's no real indication as to what's caused this, although given the way development has gone so far I suspect one party thought that Bloodlines 2 needed a significant rework that the other party was unwilling to consider.

This is looking like one of those Duke Nukem forever kind of games.

There is no way this game ever releases in a good state at this point right? Why not just cancel the damn thing and stop fucking with people?

 

[09philj]

This is looking like one of those Duke Nukem forever kind of games.

There is no way this game ever releases in a good state at this point right? Why not just cancel the damn thing and stop fucking with people?

People have already preordered the game.

 

[SilentPony]

I know this is my schadenfreude showing, but I enjoy when hyped games get delayed, because you know its not because things are going great and they're just ironing out some details and really want to polish it. Its delayed because its barely functional and the executives need time to look for another job before it launches and tanks their reputation. Plus a brand new dev team probably isn't good.

I hope it's good, and it looks like the fans deserve it, but its the game industry, we know it'll be a disaster, we know there will be a day 1 patch almost as big as the actual game, we know it'll be filled with clipping, clopping, glitches, bugs, pop ins, sync errors, save corruptions, and game breaking problems. That may or may not be fixed with a 6-12 month road map that is silently set aside as the company moves onto another game.

 

[CriticalGaming]

People have already preordered the game.

Not that hard to refund considering no product has been rendered. Also they've shut down pre-orders according to additional statements on their website. This article goes into more detail https://kotaku.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-delayed-past-2021-1846333086

So they've shutdown the ability to even try to purchase the game regardless. And I can't recall the last time we even saw trailer footage for the game. The only communication from the studio has been bad news, either via delay or employees getting fired.

I just can't see how this has a fairy tale ending with a stellar game coming out the backend of whenever they get things under control. At best we get something akin to Anthem which was a game that technically "works" but isn't put together well.

 

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