The Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Creative Director Ka’ai Cluney and Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda have both been ‘suddenly terminated’ in a joint decision by Paradox Interactive and Hardsuit Labs.
“We recently shared that we were making some organizational changes to the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 team, as promised, we will now give an update on what that means,” read a statement on the game’s official website. “Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda and Creative Director Ka’ai Cluney are no longer part of the team at Hardsuit Labs. This was a joint decision made by the leadership of Hardsuit Labs and Paradox Interactive.”
Ka’ai Cluney doesn’t’ appear to have publicly commented on the matter, but ex-Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda seemed surprised by the decision.
“Until recently, I was the Narrative Lead on a videogame called Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 for Hardsuit Labs, Inc being published by Paradox Interactive (which owns 30% of Hardsuit Labs),” Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda said in a statement to RPS. “After almost five years involvement with the studio, I was suddenly terminated on 7/16/20.”
“That this came as a shock to me is underselling it,” he continued. “[…] I am confident and proud of the work that I and my team put forward.”
The timing of the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Creative Director’s firing is especially troubling news — this announcement was made just one week after the people behind the game made the decision to delay its release date to 2021.
Alexandre Mandryka (Assassin’s Creed, Warhammer 40,000) has been tapped as Creative Consultant, filling in for the Creative Director role as the game wraps up development.
