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[Draugoth]

Paradox Interactive seems ready to be done with Vampire: The Masquerade — and with RPGs in general — with deputy CEO Mattias Lilja telling PC Gamer that any potential Bloodlines 3 will be "done by someone else."

Lilja opened up about Bloodlines 2's development in the course of an unusually frank interview, itself part of a media tour seemingly designed to show how Paradox was being reset after a string of problematic releases and reports of a toxic work culture. Paradox's overarching message? It's sticking to what it's good at, and what it's good at is strategy games.

So if Bloodlines 2, God willing, is successful, Bloodlines 3 [will be] done by someone else, on the license from us

Source

 

[Plague Doctor]

I have little faith this will hold up to the original or we will see anything like that amazing hotel level or the branching questlines in the hubs.

Paradox has been good but with the egos and bullshit with western devs these days, there will be too many cooks in the kitchen and they will be so far up their own asses to make this good.

Edit: And make no mistakes I WANT the Original World of Darkness to be realized as a setting like Cyberpunk was (after the patches). This shit ain't in the cards though. If my cynicism is wrong, I will be happy I am proven wrong.

 

[ProtoByte]

This IP is cooked. Paradox has mishandled WoD in every aspect.

 

[adamsapple]

So when's the second one coming out for reals?

 

[SyberWolf]

So when's the second one coming out for reals?

i am honestly surprised they havent just cancelled this game.

 

[YuLY]

This attitude is the mark of a weak publisher and people without vision. You have to be smart and risk it, otherwise you're gonna be stuck in the same 4X thing, and how long will that last considering millennials and gen-x are getting older, I dont think there are that many zoomers who are into 4X strategy games.

Focus Interactive risked it until they made it with Space Marine 2, which probably sold more than 5million at this point, for an AA publisher that is phenomenal. Paradox is a joke.

 

[StereoVsn]

Paradox Interactive seems ready to be done with Vampire: The Masquerade — and with RPGs in general — with deputy CEO Mattias Lilja telling PC Gamer that any potential Bloodlines 3 will be "done by someone else."

Lilja opened up about Bloodlines 2's development in the course of an unusually frank interview, itself part of a media tour seemingly designed to show how Paradox was being reset after a string of problematic releases and reports of a toxic work culture. Paradox's overarching message? It's sticking to what it's good at, and what it's good at is strategy games.



Source

Well, thank Cthulhu. Their strategy games have been releasing in shit state and they really need to clean up house.

Victoria 3 is still meh after two years. City Skylines 2 is a disaster after a year. Millennia is meh, and so on.

They better knock or out if god damn park with EU 5.

 

[StereoVsn]

This attitude is the mark of a weak publisher and people without vision. You have to be smart and risk it, otherwise you're gonna be stuck in the same 4X thing, and how long will that last considering millennials and gen-x are getting older, I dont think there are that many zoomers who are into 4X strategy games.

Focus Interactive risked it until they made it with Space Marine 2, which probably sold more than 5million at this point, for an AA publisher that is phenomenal. Paradox is a joke.

They need to get their house in order first. They have been bleeding money and haven’t produced a genuine hit probably since HOI4/CK3. Most of their games have been releasing in a bad state.

They need to focus on their core first and get that shit taken care of.

Also, Gen Z aren’t playing Space Marine 2 either. Warhammer 40K is mostly older gamers as well.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Hopefully the atmosphere can be retained since its the same dude who did the original games music.

 

[Gojiira]

But erm they cut all of Chris Avellones contributions so I have zero faith it will even still be a RPG anymore when it finally releases…
Still it cant be any worse than Starfield so who knows.

 

[Flabagast]

For those willing the Chinese Room (which released the excellent Still Wakes the Deep this year) is publishing regularly dev diaries on the official website https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...odlines-2/news/dev-diary-building-our-seattle

Project is looking good I think

 

[llLeonhart]

For those willing the Chinese Room (which released the excellent Still Wakes the Deep this year) is publishing regularly dev diaries on the official website https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...odlines-2/news/dev-diary-building-our-seattle

Project is looking good I think

Sadly I think the Chinese room is one of the worst developers possible for this project. This could be a interesting spin off or even an entirely new IP, but as it stands, this game is very likely to fail due to how unfaithful it is to the original.

 

[Dazraell]

I have zero faith on Chinese Room's take on Bloodlines 2. Everything they shown so far is a complete opposite of what I wanted from Bloodlines 2. This game honestly gives me an impression of being inferior to its predecessor in almost every way

Paradox's mismanagement of RPGs is kinda something else. They acquired Harebrained Schemes who did acclaimed Shadowrun games only to have them working on completely different genres, they bought Tyranny IP from Obsidian only to end it after a first game, they passed on publishing Pillars of Eternity II. Not to mention all of the shitshow they did with Bloodlines 2. Ugh, what a shame

 

[Arachnid]

This attitude is the mark of a weak publisher and people without vision. You have to be smart and risk it, otherwise you're gonna be stuck in the same 4X thing, and how long will that last considering millennials and gen-x are getting older, I dont think there are that many zoomers who are into 4X strategy games.

Focus Interactive risked it until they made it with Space Marine 2, which probably sold more than 5million at this point, for an AA publisher that is phenomenal. Paradox is a joke.

Seriously. It's not like it's unheard of. Creative Assembly was only really known for a bunch of Total War strategy games before they came out with Alien Isolation (one of the greatest survival horror titles of all time). These guys need to get it together. I think strategy game developers have tons to offer outside of their niche. They've already demonstrated skill at complex gameplay systems. Just apply that on a smaller scale with an RPG/immersive sim.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I totally forgot that they shopped this out to The Chinese Room - all I remember was the Chris Avellone saga. As much as I want this to be good, I'm keeping expectations firmly in check.

 

[EviLore]

Cancel cancel culture, starting with the Bloodlines 2 dev team.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Tbh I'm glad to hear there even will be a third entry. The IP is great, just let is be handled by a studio that knows what it is doing. Fingers crossed this decision came at a time when they had realized how destructive DEI/ESG is.

 

[lh032]

So when's the second one coming out for reals?

They need to get approval from sweetbaby first.

 

[Dazraell]

Tbh I'm glad to hear there even will be a third entry. The IP is great, just let is be handled by a studio that knows what it is doing. Fingers crossed this decision came at a time when they had realized how destructive DEI/ESG is.

This headline is a bit misleading as no one said there will be a third game. Paradox guy only said that they are not planning to do anything with that IP after Bloodlines 2 and if someone would hypothetically do a third game, it would be licenced externally instead of being done internally like Bloodlines 2

 

[Gp1]

Here is the deal.

Bloodlines 2 is at least 10 years too soon. The game`s development went through the entire social movement of the late 2010`s (cancel culture, toxic environment, me, lives, occupy, etc, yada yada yada), a pandemic, a team wanting to write about the "social and cultural conflict in modern Seattle", the entire clusterfuck with Avellone, another cf with Mitsoda and Clune, Paradox supposed mismanagement etc.

If this game was starting development today, to be released in 4-5 years with the team from the first game + Avellone , I would have some hope. Today I simply can't care anymore, even considering that the first one is probably one of the best written games of all time.

 

[Edmund]

I read it as Bloodborne at first and got excited for nothing

 

[The Cockatrice]

In other words, they're saying they wanna get rid of this project, 2nd game included, because its a soulless pos.

 

[Neon Xenon]

Funny, I was looking through comments on the VTMB2 Extended Gameplay Reveal video recently. I found one of the most destructive pieces of criticism that I've seen about this game so far.

 

[balls of snow]

They have 19 (!) dev diaries and still no release date.

 

[Vlodril]

Good. They fucked up already with bloodlines 2 with firing Mitsoda and Avellone (and another person from the og team which i don't remember). They changed the story in the new revamped version and it doesn't look that great either so far. Maybe the studio will surprise but i feel it won't come close to matching the atmosphere the first game had.

Maybe someone competent can do 3 or other games (redemption 2?).

 

[Kacho]

Somebody call Saber Interactive to save this

 

[Wildebeest]

The last dev update had all the verve of someone explaining to you that you had late stage cancer, and they were doing all they could to find treatment options.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

I need a YouTube summary of wtf has happened with this game. I stopped following it after Mitsoda left.

 

[balls of snow]

In other words, they're saying they wanna get rid of this project, 2nd game included, because its a soulless pos.

Nah its because the cant monetise it beyond the initial purchase.
Begs the question why would they fund the project in the first place.

 

[Sentenza]

So when's the second one coming out for reals?

They recently announced its delay to a vague "first half of 2025".
Before that it was expected for this Autumn.
Before even that... it's a long story.

 

[Wildebeest]

I need a YouTube summary of wtf has happened with this game. I stopped following it after Mitsoda left.

Not much to say. It went dark, then Chinese Room picked it up and said it was almost finished, despite only showing some very lame looking combat and some "managing expectations". Apparently, nothing would have happened to it at all if Chinese Room didn't step forward, which they probably regret doing.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Not much to say. It went dark, then Chinese Room picked it up and said it was almost finished, despite only showing some very lame looking combat and some "managing expectations". Apparently, nothing would have happened to it at all if Chinese Room didn't step forward, which they probably regret doing.

Gotcha, appreciate the clarification.

 

[fart town usa]

Hmm, maybe Fast Travel Gams will get the license for cheap(er) and make a shallow VR RPG/Adventure.

They've done VR games for Wraith and Vampire.

 

[Facism]

excellent news, now Paradox can concentrate on what they do best, which is release terrible overpriced DLC for their grand strategy games.

 

[Braag]

I knew from the moment Paradox got the rights that they are not up for this.
Giving it to Hardsuit Labs which seemed to have a vision for the game and then hiring some key people who worked on the previous game, gave me some hope. But soon after, they started firing people and took the project away from Hardsuit Labs and I still wonder what on earth happened there for Paradox to act so strongly.
Now I don't even know what they are even doing anymore. Giving it to another studio who decided to change almost everything about the original vision of the project. Chances of this releasing are small, chances of it being good are even smaller.

 

[ProtoByte]

Funny, I was looking through comments on the VTMB2 Extended Gameplay Reveal video recently. I found one of the most destructive pieces of criticism that I've seen about this game so far.

Goths are working/have massive influence on the game through the 5th edition of the TTRPG. They're just not 90s goths.

 

[BennyBlanco]

this project was doomed from the start. read what chris avellone had to say.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I largely lost interest after Avellone, Mitsoda and some other key people were no longer involved.

The most likely scenario is that the game will disappoint (especially for not being what people loved about Bloodlines 1) & bomb and that there won't be Bloodlines 3 at any point in the future.