Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 continues Paradox’s delay streak, now launching next year

Paradox Interactive’s streak of game delays continues with the news its Chinese-Room-developed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is now targeting a release in the “first half of 2025”, rather than its previously announced “late 2024” window.

In a post on its website, Paradox called the delay a “proactive decision” derived from its commitment early this to deliver “high-quality games” to its players. “Though [Bloodlines 2] is in a good enough place that we could have maintained our planned release window,” it continued, “Paradox and The Chinese Room collaboratively decided to prioritise polish.”

Paradox says the delay will “create a quality assurance buffer, giving more time between testing and launch, ensuring we release the game when it’s ready.” More specifically, The Chinese Room will use the time to expand Bloodlines 2’s story, providing twice as many endings as its predecessor, and to “adjust certain areas” such as Fabien – the voice in its protagonist’s head.

The Chinese Rooms adds it’ll continue sharing Bloodlines 2 details with fans in the run-up to its revised released next year, with future topics of discussion set to include social feeding, Seattle’s different factions, some additional characters, and more. “It has been a long journey,” Paradox’s statement concluded, “but we’re near the final stages of development and will share the release date once we are confident with the game’s level of polish.”

Bloodlines 2 is, of course, far from the only game to be delayed by Paradox in recent times, with Prison Architect 2 and Cities: Skylines 2’s console release having both faced multiple delays. Paradox’s Sims-like Life By You also saw repeated delays until the publisher made the shock decision to pull the plug on the project earlier this year, cancelling the game and closing its studio.

Life By You’s cancellation was just the latest in a string of high-profile disasters for Paradox in recent years. Bloodlines 2 was almost cancelled before The Chinese Room stepped in after troubles at its original studio, while 2023’s The Lamplighters’ League was enough of a flop that Paradox opted to part ways with its developer Harebrained Schemes. And the ramfactions of Cities: Skylines 2 catastrophically premature launch are still being felt, with Paradox having pledged not to release any additional DLC until its issues are addressed. In July, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester admitted the publisher had “made the wrong calls in several projects”.