In an interview with Swedish website Privata Affärer earlier this month, Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester (who is also the company’s resident Great Old One according to his Twitter bio) was asked about the status of the much-delayed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Via Google Translate, he said that the company “will probably be able to set a launch date for this game reasonably soon” and called a 2023 launch “absolutely not impossible”.
When it was first announced, the Hardsuit Labs-developed vampire RPG had a release date of March 2020. We were excited for Bloodlines 2 when it was revealed, but a year later lead writer Brian Mitsoda and creative director Ka’ai Cluney had been fired, and senior narrative designer Cara Ellison left too, after which its release was delayed indefinitely.
When that version of the game was canceled, the project was almost dropped completely, but publisher Paradox decided to give it a second chance on unlife with a new studio, though Paradox hasn’t said yet what studio that is.
“If you look at the pipeline, we’ve been a little cautious about announcing things because we got burned a little bit on Bloodlines 2”, Wester told Privata Affärer, suggesting that its date was made public just a little bit early. “We’ve said we’re not going to release anything until we’re pretty sure of an absolute launch date or at least a launch month,” he added.