Developer Hardsuit Labs has been removed from the helm

Feb 24, 2021 19:04 GMT  ·  By

Bad news for gamers anxiously waiting to play Vampire: The Masquerade this year, as publisher Paradox Interactive announced earlier today that development for Bloodlines 2 has been put on hold indefinitely.

Although it might seem shocking, the announcement shouldn't surprise anyone considering the decisions the project went through in the last year or so. Last summer, Paradox announced that it decided to fire two important people working on the game: lead narrative designer Brian Mitsoda and creative director Ka'ai Cluney.

What's even worse is that the firing of the two key creators came soon after Paradox announced a delay of the game from 2020 to 2021. Well, it looks like things went really sideways if Paradox had to remove the entire studio from the helm.

In a statement published on the game's official website, Paradox informs fans that Hardsuit Labs won't be working on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 anymore, and that the game will no longer be released in 2021, as initially announced.

We have made the hard decision that Hardsuit Labs will no longer be leading the development of Bloodlines 2 - which also means that we will not be releasing in 2021 as previously planned. Since we cannot at this time communicate a new release date, we've also decided to stop accepting pre-orders for the time being.”

No reason for the decision has been revealed, though Paradox does mention that the game is not something that meets its goals, which is why it has “come to the conclusion that a change is needed.”

It remains to be seen what studio Paradox will approach for the development of the project, or maybe the publisher will decide to make the game in-house. It's unlikely that we'll be getting any new official information about Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 this year, so we'll just try to forget the game until 2022 because it's too painful.