VtM: Bloodlines 2 - Almost Cancelled

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TechRaptor reports that Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 was almost cancelled but was then saved by a convincing pitch. The new developer has still not been announced.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has definitely had a strange road so far. Initially announced to a lot of fanfare, it has since suffered delay after delay after delay, which has led to a lot of wondering and discussion on whether or not the game has quietly been canned. Not so, says, Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester, as the game was apparently saved by a "convincing" pitch:

"When we lifted the game from the original developer, we had a long review in case we should end the game or run it further," Wester said in an interview with Avanza. "Then we were actually prepared to close the production completely. But we got a 'pitch' that we thought was convincing enough to run. played on and we have very good hopes that it will be a good game that meets the players' expectations."

That was the only bit of news either, as apparently, Hardsuit Labs is no longer the development lead on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, with a "new studio partner" being brought in to finish the game. As you can tell by the quotes, the developer has not yet been named.

Interestingly, Wester seems determined to see this through until the very end for Bloodlines 2, and its performance will see whether or not Paradox does any other big AAA titles:

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More information.
 
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Old news already shared in another thread.:p

At this point I wouldn't blame Paradox if they did cancel the game. As it turned out to be a huge waste of resources. Still I wonder who is the new developer they picked?
Paradox still haven't said who has taken over making Bloodlines 2. Wester passed on answering a question about that in this interview, but did say they're "a very reputable and talented developer" who've made several games before. It's also unknown how much the new Bloodlines 2 resembles the old Bloodlines 2, though Wester seemingly said in this interview [currently going off Google Translate for this part, soz] that they can still use much of the work. For all anyone knows, that could mean anything from re-using art assets to picking up where Hardsuit left off. Hard to say when what happened is such a secret.
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Couchpotato said:
Old news already shared in another thread.:p

At this point I wouldn't blame Paradox if they did cancel the game. As it turned out to be a huge waste of resources. Still I wonder who is the new developer they picked?
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Here is a question for you Couch. Who would you like it be? I can't think of anyone reputable who isn't already engaged with projects of their own. Unless Paradox have gone for a non RPG studio.
 
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Silver said:
Here is a question for you Couch. Who would you like it be? I can't think of anyone reputable who isn't already engaged with projects of their own. Unless Paradox have gone for a non RPG studio.
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Hard to tell really they mention it's a well known developer.

At first I thought it might be Harebrained Schemes.

As Paradox owns the studio and they've been quiet for a while. Their hiring a lot of people for a secret project, and helped with Bloodlines 2 development already.

Someone else mentioned Starbreeze but I doubt it's them.

Wonder if Microsoft is interested? Maybe it's a well known developer of RPGs like BioWare, Obsidian, Inxile, Bethesda , or even Beam-dog. At this point who really knows.
 
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Couchpotato said:
Hard to tell really they mention it's a well known developer.

At first I thought it might be Harebrained Schemes.

As Paradox owns the studio and they've been quiet for a while. Their hiring a lot of people for a secret project, and helped with Bloodlines 2 development already.

Someone else mentioned Starbreeze but I doubt it's them.

Wonder if Microsoft is interested? Maybe it's a well known developer of RPGs like BioWare, Obsidian, Inxile, Bethesda , or even Beam-dog. At this point who really knows.
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I suppose it could be a Microsoft studio but would Paradox really want to split the gross with a major publisher? It maybe the case through but Harebrained would be a good option for them.
 
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Silver said:
I can't think of anyone reputable who isn't already engaged with projects of their own. Unless Paradox have gone for a non RPG studio.
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We don't know anything about what inXile is doing now, right?
 
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Silver said:
Weren't they developing their own ip through? Something thats supposed to be steampunk and first personish. I suppose they could be working on multiple projects so there is that.
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Forgot about that, or maybe I never saw it. Guess it's just a rumor based on pinterest posts. But Jason Anderson (creative director of Bloodlines 1) works at inXile these days, seems like if anyone could give a pitch to save Bloodlines 2 it'd be him. But being owned by Microsoft complicates things?

edit: looking at the writing credits for Bloodlines 1, I guess one of its other 5 writers works at inXile too, Chad Moore.
 
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Stingray said:
Forgot about that, or maybe I never saw it. Guess it's just a rumor based on pinterest posts. But Jason Anderson (creative director of Bloodlines 1) works at inXile these days, seems like if anyone could give a pitch to save Bloodlines 2 it'd be him. But being owned by Microsoft complicates things?
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It depends, I guess, on the company cultures. Some don't like having to work with multiple partners and I imagine communication and contracts could get difficult.

edit: Yeah there are lots of writers at inXile that would really add value. I hope they are involved somehow althrough Harebrained also have good writers.
 
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Silver said:
It depends, I guess, on the company cultures. Some don't like having to work with multiple partners and I imagine communication and contracts could get difficult.

edit: Yeah there are lots of writers at inXile that would really add value. I hope they are involved somehow althrough Harebrained also have good writers.
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The writing in Harebrained's games has been a lot better than inXile's games I'd say. Although in the last Shadowrun, Hong Kong, the amount of verbosity got a bit tedious at times. inXile doing it is probably a pipe dream anyway since they're owned by Paradox's competitor.
 
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Stingray said:
The writing in Harebrained's games has been a lot better than inXile's games I'd say. Although in the last Shadowrun, Hong Kong, the sheer amount of words and lack of much action got a bit tedious at times. inXile doing it is probably a pipe dream anyway since they're owned by Paradox's competitor.
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I wouldn't rule out a partnership with another larger publisher. As Paradox isn't doing so well financially right now due to mismanagement, and other PR scandals with employees.

Their current CEO was fired and Fredrik Wester took over as CEO again. His first act was to cancel almost every in development project that's not a grand strategy game.

Link - https://www.pcgamesn.com/victoria-3/paradox-games-cancelled
 
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Stingray said:
The writing in Harebrained's games has been a lot better than inXile's games I'd say. Although in the last Shadowrun, Hong Kong, the amount of verbosity got a bit tedious at times. inXile doing it is probably a pipe dream anyway since they're owned by Paradox's competitor.
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Thats why I dropped Hong Kong. As good as it was there was too much of it and I lost motivation. Dragonfall had a far better balance writing to fighting wise.

Who knows really through. Microsoft seem more open to doing things differently so it may very well be in the works.
 
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Silver said:
Thats why I dropped Hong Kong. As good as it was there was too much of it and I lost motivation. Dragonfall had a far better balance writing to fighting wise.
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Yeah, it was a minor struggle to finish Hong Kong and its add-on. I don't have a problem with lots of dialogue in a game either, it just seemed like they were using so many words to say so little.
 
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Stingray said:
Yeah, it was a minor struggle to finish Hong Kong and its add-on. I don't have a problem with lots of dialogue in a game either, it just seemed like they were using so many words to say so little.
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Thats true. I think sometimes devs get the idea that they have to add value but go about it in a wrong headed way. 'Lets add more words because more words equals better value to our customers'. Really its just marketing bullet points.
 
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Stingray said:
Yeah, it was a minor struggle to finish Hong Kong and its add-on. I don't have a problem with lots of dialogue in a game either, it just seemed like they were using so many words to say so little.
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That's a general problem with lots of modern video game writing.
The recent Pathfinder: WotR also suffers from way too wordy dialogue.

"If your writing isn't stellar, at least make it short" is really something that should be taught to each and every writer.
 
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I really hope this disaster has weeded out some 'developers' who had no business making games in the first place. I hate that so many resources have been wasted on this already when all they had to do was use one of the most respected RPGs as a template and bring it into the HD age!
 
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lol, the ups and downs of this game are becoming amusing. Apparently, its impossible to make this game, its just way too touchy! Everything has to be just right, like Goldilocks. :lol:
 
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