Paradox wants out of the RPG industry: "If Bloodlines 2, God forbid, is a success, Bloodlines 3 will be done by someone else."

Paradox Interactive has been working with Hard Suit Labs for Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 since the company acquired White Wolf and The World of Darkness. It's also been almost a decade since they started working together. It's been a tough time.

Hard Suit and Paradox, who have been working in secret for four years, announced Bloodlines 2 for 2019. The pair stated that we'd be playing Bloodlines 2 in 2020. Then, it was delayed. Then it was delayed again. Hard Suit was dropped from the project, and the 2020 deadline was pushed back to 2021.

It seemed that cancellation was inevitable for a time. It almost ended up in the trash. Mattias Lilja, deputy CEO, tells me that if we hadn't discovered The Chinese Room and seen what they had done with the early works, [cancellation] was the next logical thing to do, because we couldn't continue as we were.

Lilja is confident that it's now in a much better place, despite the fact that it has recently been hit with another delay pushing it from 2024 to the first half 2025. "It has been in development for a long time, but now we are beginning to see the game take shape into something we can... We think it will be World of Darkness."

It's a strangely tepid compliment, but it is also refreshing. This interview was not a typical marketing-driven affair. No big announcements. No hype. Just a frank explanation of what's happening at Paradox. The reasons for its recent struggles and what they're doing to change their fortunes. Even with this in mind, it seems that there is a little nervousness about the reception of Bloodlines 2. Paradox doesn't want to go through it again.

Lilja says, "It's not in our strategic direction to create this type of game." "So, if Bloodlines 2 is a success, God willing, Bloodlines 3 will be done by someone else on our licence. It's a strategic approach, I would say. It's still a deviation from what we're expected to do. We don't know this stuff, so it's probably best to let others do it."

Paradox Arc is a small-scale label where it can experiment with different things. A big RPG, however, doesn't fit in. Lilja says it would have to something "very unique", like a CRPG. But even that is a "big commitment", and expectations are higher now than ever before thanks to Baldur’s Gate 3. He says that "regardless" of the outcome, Bloodlines will be a "dead-end".

Bloodlines 2 is not going anywhere. We make sure that they work. We make sure that they work. "The rest is up to you, the players." You can expect the usual updates and fixes but DLC? I wouldn't expect anything soon.

"I think that some studios make strategic investments and long-term things because they feel the cost of not making them is too high. But, I mean I think it's pretty clear, if not to me then I think you will agree, that Bloodlines is not a game with a very long shelf life. These games don't behave that way. You get a rush of players, a little word-of-mouth, a peak in popularity, and then a decline. It's not that the gameplay changes over time. "I think that's a big part of the reason why we don't find these games very appealing."

It was the fans' persistence that inspired the sequel to Bloodlines, 20 years after its original release. Bethesda's RPGs have a long-lasting life, as is evident by their longevity. Baldur's gate, a 26-year old series, has just released its third game. This game has been among Steam's top-rated games for more than a year despite the absence of DLC. Some RPGs are incredibly long-lived. It's clear that they're not Paradox's cup of tea, so it might be a good idea to pass the license on to another caretaker.