Via the planet-vampire.com forums:
-A CCP source told him they are very near the end of pre-production and is beginning full-blown production. They in fact have a PLAYABLE version of the game, although it is so rudimentary that it is not worth the effort of demoing.
- due to a licensing issues between CCP and Wizards of the Coast, they are going to be discontinuing the Vampire: the Eternal struggle collective card game. They said that the fans could however, keep the game alive, by loyally continuing to play.
- Lone Wolf Development has been outsourced work from CCP to start generating a suite of tools to make only RP and ST easier for players that choose that venue.
- They have also hired DriveThruRPG.com to provide a 'print-to-order' service for their ENTIRE backlog of White Wolf books and resources. That means that all the Masquerade books should be easily available again. Also, to clarify, 'print-to-order' means that when you order the book, the distributor prints up a fresh copy specifically for you, and mails it to you.
Direct MMO Stuff:
- the game has been in development for approximately 3 years.
- This has been slowed by keeping up with EVE
- Preparing to develop 'Carbon technology' framework for what should provide state-of-the-art character customizations, unlike any seen in any game before, for the MMO.
- They are particularly psyched about the customization framework. They claim they have in fact, hired a fashion consultant, to help make the system more realistic and stylish.
- Another 1.5 years has been spent preparing the actual gameplay
- They have increased their staff by 6 times the previous head count
- They've put 629K man-hours into this MMO -- so far.
Regarding Coffee House, Sandbox and Themeparks that we've discussed on the forum, Burgermeister writes; "From what they said, these three spheres should be closely tied and interconnected together, essentially running the economy of blood in the game. "
The four overall themes they intended to have in the game are:
- Mystery
- Romance
- Power
- Danger
"For concrete facts, we learned that the game will be ready, by earliest, 2012. The game will be based on Vampire: the Masquerade. Specifically, in the initial release of the game, there will only be vampires as supernatural, playable characters. There will however, be elements from Werewolf, Changling, etc., likely in the form of environmental content, and NPCs."