Troubled first-person RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 failed to impress critics and fans when it launched last month, and its sales are no different. Paradox Interactive confirmed that they didn’t align with its projections and it’s writing down roughly $37 million in costs.
Surprisingly, CEO Frederik Wester said the responsibility “lies fully with us as the publisher,” while praising The Chinese Room’s work. “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a strong vampire fantasy, and we are pleased with the developers’ work on the game.
“We’ve had high expectations for a long time, since we saw that it was a good game with a strong IP in a genre with a broad appeal. A month after release, we can sadly see that sales do not match our projections, which necessitates the write-down,” he told GamesIndustry.
“The responsibility lies fully with us as the publisher. The game is outside of our core areas; in hindsight, it is clear that this has made it difficult for us to gauge sales. Going forward, we focus our capital on our core segments and, at the same time, we’ll evaluate how we best develop World of Darkness’ strong brand catalogue in the future.”
Interestingly, former creative director and studio co-founder Dan Pinchbeck recently spoke about how woefully unprepared The Chinese Room was to make the sequel. He recalls sitting with a former Paradox producer and brainstorming ways to convince the publisher “to not call it Bloodlines 2,” believing there wasn’t “enough time” or “enough money” to make it, especially in this day and age.
Of course, it will still receive the two paid expansions, Loose Cannon in Q2 2026 and The Flower and The Flame in Q3 2026. Last month, The Chinese Room released a free Halloween update that added eight new hairstyles, eight new eye colors and eight new makeup styles alongside various fixes.
It’s still working on implementing a field-of-view slider and custom difficulty settings to allow players to skip Fabien’s segments during a second run. Both updates will arrive later this year – check out the roadmap for more details.
It’s always disappointing to see a highly anticipated game struggle, especially one with such a rich lore. Hopefully, the developers can take this feedback and make improvements for future projects. It’s important to support creativity in the gaming industry, even when things don’t go as planned.
history and lore. It’s interesting to note that the original Bloodlines has developed a cult following over the years, which makes the expectations for the sequel even higher. Hopefully, the developers can learn from this experience and find a way to revive the series in the future.
Absolutely, the original Bloodlines definitely has a special place in the hearts of many fans, largely due to its deep storytelling and immersive world. It’s a shame that the sequel couldn’t live up to those high expectations, especially given the rich lore established in the first game. Hopefully, the franchise can find a way to revive that magic in the future!
I completely agree! The original Bloodlines set a high bar with its deep storytelling and immersive world. It’s interesting to see how expectations for sequels can impact their reception, especially when the original has such a dedicated following.