The long-running saga of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2's development is going to continue for a while longer, it turns out. The unlucky RPG was expected out this year—after several delays, being temporarily shelved and getting a new developer—but The Chinese Room and Paradox have decided to push the release date back until 2025.
In a video published today, creative director Alex Skidmore and Paradox's deputy CEO Mattias Lilja shared an update on the game's development, trying to assure prospective players that things were going well, but that it would need more time in the oven.
"Our team at The Chinese Room will make the most of the time, to polish and ensure quality," Skidmore says, "while several of the team members will be ready earlier, allowing them to work on things we might not have had time for but are really passionate about. For example we can now add more endings to the game, allowing it to be a more personal story."
Honestly, for a game that has been in development hell for so long, adding more to it seems like a risky move. Especially when what we saw during January's extended reveal looked so rough. But maybe the last 7 months have seen enough improvements to justify dedicating some of the team to expanding its scope. If that's the case, hopefully we'll be shown more footage of the game in action to prove it.
This isn't all the extra time will be used for, of course. Certain areas and characters are being adjusted, community feedback will be incorporated and it will give the studio more time to apply another coat of polish.
The announcement comes during a tumultuous time for publisher Paradox, hot on the heels of Prison Architect 2's indefinite delay, which came just after Life By You's indefinite delay and subsequent cancellation. The difference here is that the delay is accompanied by a new release window—the first half of 2025—and Bloodlines 2 won't be going radio silent.
"The Chinese Room and Paradox will continue to post frequent updates, including Dev Diaries, deep dives, and more," an accompanying post promises. "We are not going into a quiet period."
Pushing a game out before it is ready, like we saw with Cities: Skylines 2, is never a good thing. More development time is broadly positive. But by next year it will have been a decade since the original developer, Hardsuit Labs, started working with Paradox on the sequel, and it feels like with every additional delay enthusiasm is waning. Hopefully this is all the time Bloodlines 2 needs to live up to the ravenous community's expectations. Fingers and fangs crossed.
