Possibly The Chinese Room has left Sumo Group to survive. When in 2021 Tencent bought Sumo Group for 1,270 million dollars, the company had more than 40 projects in progress and everything seemed to go very well, but in 2024 the thing began to twist with a restructuring that took about 250 employees ahead, 15 % of the workforce. Last February Sumo Group announced a change in strategy that consists in stopping developing its own intellectual properties to work exclusively in third -party projects. The Chinese Room does not fit this planning.
The Chinese Room is a company known for carrying out many new and own intellectual properties, including Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, Little Orpheus and Still Wkes The Deep. In his curriculum there are only two sequelae, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, but in both cases they worked for a third party and did not participate in the first installment. Speaking of Bloodlines 2, the development team commented today that its launch is still planned for October.
Currently The Chinese Room continues to work in Bloodlines 2 for Interactive Paradox and in two new intellectual properties that must still be presented. As an independent company, the mission is to continue doing the same as until now, which is nothing other than developing own games and associating with a third party if the project fits its vision. With this movement The Chinese Room becomes a more study that wins its independence through a risk capital fund. On the same list we have Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War) and Jagex (Runescape).