Paradox CEO says a 2023 launch for Bloodlines 2 is 'absolutely not impossible'

A Toreador vampire
(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

In an interview with Swedish website Privata Affärer earlier this month, Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester (who is also the company's resident Great Old One according to his Twitter bio) was asked about the status of the much-delayed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Via Google Translate, he said that the company "will probably be able to set a launch date for this game reasonably soon" and called a 2023 launch "absolutely not impossible".

When it was first announced, the Hardsuit Labs-developed vampire RPG had a release date of March 2020. We were excited for Bloodlines 2 when it was revealed, but a year later lead writer Brian Mitsoda and creative director Ka'ai Cluney had been fired, and senior narrative designer Cara Ellison left too, after which its release was delayed indefinitely. 

When that version of the game was canceled, the project was almost dropped completely, but publisher Paradox decided to give it a second chance on unlife with a new studio, though Paradox hasn't said yet what studio that is.

"If you look at the pipeline, we've been a little cautious about announcing things because we got burned a little bit on Bloodlines 2", Wester told Privata Affärer, suggesting that its date was made public just a little bit early. "We've said we're not going to release anything until we're pretty sure of an absolute launch date or at least a launch month," he added.

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

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