World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Wesp5]

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture also won awards.

And was boring as hell, if I remember correctly . The same goes for Dear Esther which probably also won awards, just because it was the first walking simulator ever...

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Is Dan Pinchbeck known for anything besides Dear Esther?

I remember looking him up a while back but that seems to be his only major work, besides Deep. It also gets really fuzzy who writes what when you're a creative director and overseeing others.

So I looked him up. Turns out the Dan Pinchbeck with a Wikipedia page is some new age weirdo, which has to sting for an auteur like him. But the other games he's involved with include:

- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. The lesser sequel to the influential Amnesia: Dark Descent.
- Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. A walking simulator for Jesus!
- So Let Us Melt. VR game for the Daydream, a headset you slide your phone into for fake VR.
- Little Orpheus. A 2D platformer whose gameplay is mostly "press right to receive story". Formerly an Apple exclusive.
- Still Wakes the Deep. The Thing, except it's on an oil rig and SCOTLAND FOREVER. Released last month, a tad short for the price but people seem to like it.

Aside from that last one it's not a very impressive resume.

All Brits born between 1959-1965 are New Age Weirdos or Chavs.

 

[Morgoth]

I keep forgetting this exists. Saw the truncated thread title, expecting the new Wesp5 patch was out, and then this...

 

[Caim]

I keep forgetting this exists. Saw the truncated thread title, expecting the new Wesp5 patch was out, and then this...

Bloodlines 2 will not be good until Wesp5 is done with it.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I keep forgetting this exists. Saw the truncated thread title, expecting the new Wesp5 patch was out, and then this...

Bloodlines 2 will not be good until Wesp5 is done with it.

Modders can't save a bad game. They can only emphasize its advantages, and only if it is technically possible.

The first Vampir was simply unfinished, but had some grain of greatness and a fantastic engine. Vampire 2 seems unsalvageable unless they still have some tricks up their sleeve.

 

[Wesp5]

Bloodlines 2 will not be good until Wesp5 is done with it.

Modders can't save a bad game. They can only emphasize its advantages, and only if it is technically possible.

I agree. Also modders will only work on games that they really like and that deserve the attention ...

 

[Storyfag]

Bloodlines 2 will not be good until Wesp5 is done with it.

Modders can't save a bad game. They can only emphasize its advantages, and only if it is technically possible.

I agree. Also modders will only work on games that they really like and that deserve the attention ...

Look into my eyes. Are you positive you saw Nines Rodri... You like Bloodlines 2.

 

[Semiurge]

Bloodlines 2 will not be good until Wesp5 is done with it.

Modders can't save a bad game. They can only emphasize its advantages, and only if it is technically possible.

I agree. Also modders will only work on games that they really like and that deserve the attention ...

Look into my eyes. Are you positive you saw Nines Rodri... You like Bloodlines 2.

Domination won't work on an elder malkavian such as Wesp.

 

[Abu Antar]

I wonder how this will affect this game.

Paradox Interactive reports a 90% drop in operating profit

 

[MjKorz]

I wonder how this will affect this game.

Paradox Interactive reports a 90% drop in operating profit

Either it won't affect anything due to game being very close to release or they'll rush the game out in a buggy state.

 

[Wesp5]

Domination won't work on an elder malkavian such as Wesp.

Sorry, but I played a Toreador and unless Bloodlines 2 is a piece of art like the original, I will not touch it !

 

[MjKorz]

Domination won't work on an elder malkavian such as Wesp.

Sorry, but I played a Toreador and unless Bloodlines 2 is a piece of art like the original, I will not touch it !

It will be a piece of postmodern art.

 

[Semiurge]

unless Bloodlines 2 is a piece of art like the original

Bloodlines was a diamond in the rough, now fine vintage for those who drink.... wine.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Bloodlines 2 will not be good until Wesp5 is done with it.

Modders can't save a bad game. They can only emphasize its advantages, and only if it is technically possible.

I agree. Also modders will only work on games that they really like and that deserve the attention ...

Yes. Working on mods often takes months of work. Even making a stupid skin can take several hours. You have to like the game very much to even bother with it and love it to finish the mod.

I'm not sure the actual (foster) parents love Bloodlines 2.

 

[Roguey]

I wonder how this will affect this game.

Paradox Interactive reports a 90% drop in operating profit

Either it won't affect anything due to game being very close to release or they'll rush the game out in a buggy state.

It's supposed to be out in a few months and the footage they've shown looks rough and incomplete. The latter is a given.

Paradox had to cancel their Life By You Sims-clone, writing down $20 million.

It is clear that we have made the wrong calls in
several projects, especially outside of our core, and
this must change. We have areas here where we need
to improve, for example in production, quality and
risk assessment. In 2021, we made major changes to
how we invest in riskier projects, which means that
we have not started new projects with the same
combination of high risk and high costs as Life by
You.

You don't say.

Their assets remain larger than their liabilities so I don't believe they're in any danger of going under, even if/when Bloodlines 2 flops.

 

[Harthwain]

or they'll rush the game out in a buggy state.

Obviously they'll go the classic way.

 

[Abu Antar]

Yeah, I already posted about the cancellation of that one.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I wonder how this will affect this game.

Paradox Interactive reports a 90% drop in operating profit

Either it won't affect anything due to game being very close to release or they'll rush the game out in a buggy state.

It's supposed to be out in a few months and the footage they've shown looks rough and incomplete. The latter is a given.

Paradox had to cancel their Life By You Sims-clone, writing down $20 million.

It is clear that we have made the wrong calls in
several projects, especially outside of our core, and
this must change. We have areas here where we need
to improve, for example in production, quality and
risk assessment. In 2021, we made major changes to
how we invest in riskier projects, which means that
we have not started new projects with the same
combination of high risk and high costs as Life by
You.

You don't say.

Their assets remain larger than their liabilities so I don't believe they're in any danger of going under, even if/when Bloodlines 2 flops.

Maybe they'll cancel Bloodlines 2 too. I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[The President]

You don't say.

Their assets remain larger than their liabilities so I don't believe they're in any danger of going under, even if/when Bloodlines 2 flops.

I mean generally speaking if your assets are smaller than your liabilities you’re in real trouble as your equity literally has to be in the negative for that to be even possible. There aren’t many publicly traded boardrooms who are going to go for that.

I did a little bit of digging myself, the 90% in operating profit (meaning they didn’t even take a loss technically) is only for the current quarter. Paradox liabilities are quite low overall, at least on the balance sheets I’ve seen, they have more cash on hand and short term assets than all their liabilities combined. They actually have very good cash flow for an entity involved in gaming.

Long story short, despite the fuck ups and incompetence, they aren’t in trouble at all really. I know specialization is for insects but good lord have they been fucking shitty in literally everything that isn’t their niche. I mean Bloodlines 2 might be the last man standing of their foray into different genres and even that was very close to cancellation. At this point assuming the game even launches they’re confident they’ll make something as all the costs have been accounted already.

 

[Roguey]

Long story short, despite the fuck ups and incompetence, they aren’t in trouble at all really. I know specialization is for insects but good lord have they been fucking shitty in literally everything that isn’t their niche. I mean Bloodlines 2 might be the last man standing of their foray into different genres and even that was very close to cancellation. At this point assuming the game even launches they’re confident they’ll make something as all the costs have been accounted already.

The power of DLC allowing them to absorb the tens of millions of losses they had with Hardsuit's Bloodlines (25 million,) Lamplighters League (30 million), and Life By You (20 million).

Though all this turmoil did kill their collaborations with Digimancy and Draw Distance, among others.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Holy fuck. I can't believe each of those games cost that much. I expected Bloodlines to be half that loss, and Lamplighters League looks like it could have been made for <1million. I never even heard of Life By You. Maybe they are actually a money laundering operation.

 

[SlightlyRadioactive]

Holy fuck. I can't believe each of those games cost that much. I expected Bloodlines to be half that loss, and Lamplighters League looks like it could have been made for <1million. I never even heard of Life By You. Maybe they are actually a money laundering operation.

Feels like the whole industry is one, looking at the level of quality it has consistently been outputting recently.

 

[Roguey]

I expected Bloodlines to be half that loss

Comparing Americans to Americans, Pillars of Eternity from SoCal cost 5-6 million (let's round up to 6) for a core team of about 30 devs for about 29 months ($206,896/month). The Bloodlines 2 team was confirmed to be around 60, so one would expect it to cost twice as much as PoE for the same amount of time which would ultimately be 25 million (rounding up) after five years. Paradox have experience with funding American devs thanks to Tyranny, I imagine they'd balk if Seattle really did cost that much more than Irvine.

Lamplighters League looks like it could have been made for <1million.

Graphics are way too detailed (actually a flaw, the style doesn't look right). This is a game that was made for roughly a million https://fionabrunerart.artstation.com/projects/GXv9OV

Add to that full-voice acting, a cinematic trailer, and around 40 or so devs working for 4-5 years (Battletech was released in early 2018).

 

[anvi]

I wish I liked Bloodlines.

 

[The President]

The power of DLC allowing them to absorb the tens of millions of losses they had with Hardsuit's Bloodlines (25 million,) Lamplighters League (30 million), and Life By You (20 million).

Though all this turmoil did kill their collaborations with Digimancy and Draw Distance, among others.

It does and more importantly the constant cash flow it gives them helps. They aren’t accumulating big debts and costs and then getting a financial windfall right after release. I’d imagine they’ve made vastly more money from CK2 and Stellaris dlc than they ever made from selling the base game itself. They keep their games relevant and selling by servicing them for years after launch. Their dlc also don’t cost anywhere near as much a new game to make as well. That model probably won’t translate well to games that aren’t grand strategy. Even as successful as BG3 was on a $100 million budget, that three year early access period gave them three years of cash flow before they even released, I think they made the whole game’s cost back prior to release, and then continued to sell millions of copies post release. Don’t think that didn’t give Larian much needed breathing room and comfort space prior to final release.

Holy fuck. I can't believe each of those games cost that much. I expected Bloodlines to be half that loss, and Lamplighters League looks like it could have been made for <1million. I never even heard of Life By You. Maybe they are actually a money laundering operation.

I would imagine that’s all an accounting trick. Financial guys aren’t stupid, they probably threw every cost they could possibly fit into the total cost before they claimed a loss on it.

Not to give them accolades but I do respect on some level their ability to not follow the sunk-cost fallacy and just cancel what they feel won’t work. It does make me a little more confident in BL2 as if they really thought it was trash it would definitely be dead already. That doesn’t mean it won’t be trash though, it’s almost August and all we’ve seen is a warehouse fight.