Paradox is not giving a date, for the time being

Paradox has said in an investor document that it is “pleased with the progress” in the development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 under the new developer, although it will not be in a position to give a new release date “for quite some time”.

Last October, Fredrik Wester, the company’s CEO, admitted that the game was almost cancelled due to its troubled development, which has led to several delays, the resignation of several key positions and even a change of developer when Hardsuit Labs has pulled away from the game earlier this year.

Wester explained that Bloodlines 2 is now in the hands of a new developer “with a lot of talent and a great reputation” and that they have “high hopes” that “it will be a good game that fulfils the wishes of our players“.

Interestingly, what has not been revealed is who this new developer in charge of the project is. In a live stream, paradox CFO Alexander Bricca said that “we prefer to give the studio a situation where they can focus entirely on the development of the game and not have the fans coming to them. That’s why we haven’t said the name of the studio, and we’re happy to keep it that way for a while“.

Despite all the secrecy, Paradox says the new developer “is doing quite well, and we’re happy with the progress of the project now“.

2021 has been a challenging year for the Swedish company, not just because of the problems with Bloodlines 2. Two months ago, the company was embroiled in a scandal when several employees accused management of fostering a culture of harassment and gender discrimination. In an internal survey, as many as 133 employees claimed to have experienced “poor treatment”, with problems that were “even worse for women”.

Paradox stated that, as a result of this survey, they would conduct “a full audit” of their internal processes. A week later, however, Wester himself admitted to an “inappropriate behaviour” incident towards another female employee during a conference in 2018. “It is something for which I apologised sincerely immediately the following Monday, in a process reviewed by human resources,” he said.

In early October, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet published an article detailing a “culture of silence” within Paradox, covering up such cases. The company responded by explaining that it had hired an independent, external auditor to investigate the culture within the company.

Source: eurogamer