Daily Briefing: Tuesday 23rd February

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 developer removed, release delayed, preorders cancelled

The hotly-anticipated title has now been delayed out of 2021 and publisher Paradox Interactive have officially pulled development responsibilities from studio Hardsuit Labs - instead a "new studio partner" will finish up work on the maligned sequel. Preorders have also been halted until a new release date is announced.

• Development on Bloodlines 2 has been turbulent to say the least - this recent delay is the second in the last six months and we have seen several stories of creative fallouts and high-profile departures. Paradox have now stepped in to attempt to steady the ship, so we'll see what happens when/if the game releases.

Epic Games settle Fortnite and Rocket League loot box lawsuits with...in-game currency

Epic have announced that any player who purchased one of Fortnite Save the World's randomized loot boxes will receive 1,000 V-Bucks as part of a preliminary class action settlement. Similarly, Rocket League players who purchased a crate or key will receive 1,000 Rocket League credits.

• There's something extremely strange about a company being able use fake currency to settle (in part, at least) a very real lawsuit. In-game currency can be generated infinitely by Epic at zero cost so it's hard to believe it constitutes paying damages. In terms of monetary value, both payments are in and around $10 - so hopefully players feel much less exploited now.

Stadia devs locked out of the own game after being canned, can't fix bugs

Typhoon Studios, the developer behind Journey to the Savage Planet, were the first studio acquired by Google when they were still threatening to take games seriously, but that team were let go along with everyone else during Google's recent shuttering of all internal studios.

• This means there's nobody around to fix the number of issues that have cropped up in Journey to the Savage Planet since it came to Stadia Pro a few weeks ago. Stadia support directs players to publisher 505 Games, who say that Google own everything and they can't help. Super work, Google.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1&2 Remastered could be headed to Nintendo Switch

This nugget of hope comes courtesy of a frankly bizarre exchange on Twitter, wherein real person Tony Hawk asked Crash Bandicoot whether he could help arrange a multiplatform deal. Crash responded by tagging Activision, which drew a an enthusiastic response from Nintendo of America.

• This was a strange interaction to wake up to but it's certainly good news for Switch players. Nintendo accounts don't typically interact directly with tweets either, which adds an extra bit of credibility to what could honestly have just been some marketing chatter.