Few games have been seen in the position of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, with the nearly impossible goal of living up to the originala cult work for PC.
And it wasn’t the only obstacle: from the change of studio to the DLC controversies, the sequel had to fight on multiple fronts. Including fans’ distrust.
Now, when not even a month and a half has passed since its launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, Paradox confirms that Initial sales were well below expectations.
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Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 makes Paradox lose 32 million euros
According to GamesIndustry.biz, Paradox assumes a loss of SEK 355 million (around 32 million euros), in development costs for Bloodlines 2.
This amortization is due to the fact that Initial sales were well below expectationsa situation made worse by the game’s unfavorable reviews.
Despite the economic impact, the company ensures that will continue with the two additional content announced for the game.
Frederik Wester states that “Bloodlines 2 is a stunning vampire fantasy, and we are satisfied with the work of the developers”in reference to the Chinese Room.
Add this “our expectations were highas it is a good game and belongs to a very attractive license.”
“Unfortunately, a month after the premiere, sales do not match our projectionsso this depreciation was necessary”.
The CEO takes the blame: “the responsibility is ours as editors. “The game is outside of our core areas and, in hindsight, it is clear that this made it difficult for us to estimate its sales.”
His conciliatory words contrast with those of Paradox deputy director Mattias Lilja, who in October 2024 said that ““Bloodlines 2 is a dead end, a dead end”.
Recently, The Chinese Room co-founder Dan Pinchbec provided the studio’s point of view and gave clues about the limitations they had to face during development.
According to Pinchbec, They didn’t have the necessary budget or enough time to make a sequel on the same level as Bloodlines 2. Their solution was to “make a Dishonored” with the means they had.
Although there is no official data yet, GameDiscoverCo indicates that Bloodlines 2 reportedly sold just 121,500 copies on Steam. For now, sales on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are unknown.