Developer The Chinese Room has been hit with lay-offs affecting a number of employees that has not yet been confirmed by the studio. However, despite this, publisher Paradox Interactive has said that the studio is still on track to release Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on October 2025.
News about lay-offs hitting The Chinese Room came to light thanks to a LinkedIn post by VFX artist Jamie Berry. In his post, Berry wrote about being affected by redundancy-based lay-offs. “The scourge of redundancy has struck, and so I’m looking for new opportunities,” wrote Berry.
According to Game Developer, another former employee, who worked as a technical producer at The Chinese Room, wrote, “We are none of us safe from the headsman’s axe when redundancy time comes around.”
While the lay-offs haven’t yet been confirmed by The Chinese Room, Paradox Interactive, in its statement, has been clear about the development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 being on track for its October release window.
“Development on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is unaffected by the recent staffing changes at The Chinese Room; the game is still scheduled for an October release,” a representative for Paradox Interactive, according to PCGamer. “We wish those affected the best of luck on their future endeavors.”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was originally slated for release in the first half of 2025. However, the title has since been delayed, with the generally troubled development that the title has been facing, especially from before it came into the hands of The Chinese Room from its original developer, Hardsuit Labs.
Since development changed hands, the game has seen plenty of delays, from 2024 all the way to this year. In the meantime, The Chinese Room has also been releasing trailers for the title while also revealing more details. The most recent trailer, for instance, was released back in November, and gave us a look at the Camarilla Court and its political machinations.
The Court – controlling the city of Seattle from the shadows – will have quite a few members from across the different vampire clans. Some of the characters we got to see in the trailer include the Brujah clan’s Sheriff Benny, the Nosferatu clan’s Herald Tolly, and the Ventrue clan’s ex-Prince, Lou.
Back in February 2024, another trailer had been released giving us a look at some gameplay from an early mission in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. The trailer gave us a look at the protagonist – this time around playing as a Brujah – and how they could use their various abilities to sneak into an abandoned warehouse.
However, the protagonist is eventually spotted, and the trailer then showecased how players will have plenty of ways to take on enemies, either by sneaking past them by making use of distractions, or engaging them in direct, lethal combat. The trailer also gave us a quick look at how its system of player choice and their consequences will work.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
