Hardsuit Labs has announced the delay of their highly-anticipated immersive-sim RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Originally slated to release next March, the developer has decided to delay their game further into 2020 to create the best possible product.
The news of the delay comes via the game’s dev blog where the studio is very candid about the difficult decision. As a sequel for the cult first Bloodlines game from 2004, expectations by the gaming community is very high. Hardsuit Labs doesn’t just want to achieve an arbitrary release schedule but wants to do both the franchise and fans justice by taking the time necessary to polish and improve Bloodlines 2.
There are some things we wanted to hit under all circumstances when we set out to follow in Bloodlines’ footsteps: A deep, branching storyline; fascinating and amazingly acted characters; the rich universe of the World of Darkness. We firmly believe that we’re on the right track to get you all of this. On the flip side, there’s the responsibility to avoid some of the issues that plagued the first game, which was famously launched too early. Over the last few months, it became clear that to stick to our original date would risk repeating that mistake. We won’t do that. In the end, everyone working on this game wants to offer you the best Bloodlines 2 we can. – Hardsuit Labs
This makes even more sense when you consider that the predecessor was famously released in a horrid state, with numerous bugs and cut content. The enthusiastic gaming community took it on themselves to iron out most issues with fan patches but it would be tragic to see this repeat. So, while we are obviously sad to not get our hands on Bloodlines 2 earlier, we absolutely are happy with the developer’s decision.
It still stings, especially since it’s the second major game delay in the past seven days. Bethesda also announced the delay of DOOM Eternal with similar reasoning. Thankfully, there are plenty of heavy-hitters on the horizon that will surely soothe us over the recent delays.
