Paradox "happy with progress" on Bloodlines 2 - but its developer is still secret

Paradox Interactive say they're happy with progress on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, but they're still refusing to say who's making it. The topic came up again during the Swedish publisher's Q3 interim report, in response to the question, "Any news on Bloodlines 2 or its developer?"

You can see the response in the video recording. Paradox CFO Alexander Bricca responded by saying, first, "No, not much."

"The new developer is doing quite well and we are happy with the progress on the project now," he continued. "But it's still quite some time before we can start to talk about release dates, so we prefer to give the studio a situation where they can focus fully on the game development and not having to address fans reaching out to them. So therefore we have not disclosed the name of the studio and we are very happy to keep it that way for still some time."

Bloodlines 2 was originally in development by Seattle-based developer Hardsuit Labs. After a couple of years and some rough-looking demos, the game's narrative lead (and original Bloodlines writer) was fired in August 2020. Development continued until it switched developers to the new, unnamed studio in February 2021.

I can't think of another instance like this, where a game has been announced but the developer has been kept secret. The most obvious guess for who might have taken over the project would be Harebrained Schemes. The developers of the Shadowrun Trilogy (and more recently Battletech) are now wholly owned by Paradox Interactive and have experience making RPGs. I've no information to suggest who it is, however. Maybe I'm making it.