Hardsuit Labs and Paradox have announced a second move of the release date for the highly anticipated World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 video game.Bloodlines 2's release date will be sometime in 2021. Fans of the franchise are worried at the push, particularly as they have already lived through the 2011-2015 announcement, delay and eventual cancellation of the World of Darkness MMORPG back when the brand belonged to White Wolf and CCT.
Bloodlines 2 was originally supposed to release in Q3 2019 and was later pushed to 2020. The new release date of 2021 marks a two-year delay. In a statement, Andy Kipling from Hardsuit Labs and Jakob Munthe from Paradox Entertainment said:
"Our goal has always been to deliver the best game possible, to immerse yourself in a Seattle re-imagined in the World of Darkness, and deliver a worthy successor to the original Bloodlines game. Due to the quality bar and ambitions we have set for ourselves, we have made the difficult decision that we need more time. This means that our goal to release in 2020 is no longer possible. Moving launch is one of the changes we are making to ensure the best player experience possible."
The original Bloodlines, created by Troika Games, was released in 2004. Between 2004 and 2020, a dedicated fanbase patched the game, finished the unfinished levels, created intricate side-quests and mods and improved the graphics. Hardsuit Labs and Paradox might have wanted to avoid the same mistakes as their predecessor, as the development team has been working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and another high-profile RPG release, Cyberpunk 2077, is slated for November 2020.
To sweeten the wait, Paradox has partnered with developers and creators around the world to deliver smaller videogames and other media set in the Vampire: The Masquerade V5 universe, from the Visual Novels of Coteries of New York to the political mystery procedural of Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong.