Paradox on Bloodlines 2: "We had a game we could do, but maybe not with the team we had"

In September last year, Paradox Interactive announced that it handed the development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 to The Chinese Room, marking an umpteenth twist in the title's storied journey.

Originally meant to release in 2020, the sequel to 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is now on course to release during the first half of 2025. Paradox deputy CEO Mattias Lilja tells GamesIndustry.biz that the change of direction was the only way to avoid the project shutting down altogether, he explains.

"Changing developers is a pretty drastic measure, it is the step before you stop," he tells us. "And you need to find a good developer to continue, otherwise you probably don't continue. The game had already struggled a bit when this happened, [and] we [didn't] do it lightly. It is a high risk manoeuvre. But we thought we had a game we could do, but maybe not with the team we had. And we knew the Chinese Room, we'd seen some of what they'd done... So we thought this could be a good fit. So we're really happy that we changed, I think."

Development picked up where previous developer Hardsuit Labs left it after being dropped from the project in 2021, with Lilja clarifying that "like with any new studio coming in and having their own idea," Paradox let The Chinese Room decide what to carry over and out.

"Generally, it's a continuation of the same vision but they had to make it theirs," he says, adding that Paradox is looking at "the first half of 2025" as the release window and that the team is tracking well against that.

"When a game has been going this long with a sizable team in Seattle for a number of years before we moved it... It might have commercial challenges, but we liked the direction," he continues. "I'm a huge World of Darkness fan myself. So, when I play it, I'm starting to see that actually you're in that world, which is the experience we're going for."

He adds that players are probably going to compare it to Bloodlines 1 and, in terms of how it's going to play, "people who have seen it talk about Dishonored."

"So it's a bit more of an action RPG, but very steeped in the lore in the sense that you're a vampire in World of Darkness," he adds.

We ask him exactly what The Chinese Room provides that Hardsuit did not, and what the new developer brings to the table.

"Hardsuit Labs has many qualities – [but] they've never done something on this scale," Lilja says. "So that was basically building the team as they were building the game and that turned out to be very tough. And they were not shy to say so. Chinese Room is a more stable developer, so they could attack this with more confidence I'd say. And we had more confidence that they could deliver what we saw, the early work that they did.

"So it's the experience with this type of game. I mean, if you look at the Chinese Room… Crafting a game with this very tight story and a tight setting is very much what they do."

To read more from Mattias Lilja, you can find our full interview here, addressing Paradox's recent rough patch and how the firm intends to course correct by refocusing on its core expertise. The interview also covers Life by You's cancellation, the firm's indie publishing efforts, and more.