Bloodlines 2's disastrous $37 million write-down "lies fully" with Paradox, says its CEO, as the controversial VTM game flops

It's no secret that Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has struggled since launch. With middling reviews (I scored it a 5/10 in my own Bloodlines 2 review) and an unimpressive 56% lifetime rating on Steam, The Chinese Room's take on the World of Darkness simply doesn't have enough bite. While Paradox has previously told us that it wouldn't personally develop Bloodlines 3 because it lies outside of its strategy game remit, it's now doubled down on that statement after confirming a SEK 355 (~$37 million) write-down on the game's development costs.

Bloodlines 2's failure is two-pronged. First off, while you could loosely describe it as an RPG game, it isn't a satisfying or direct sequel in any way, and given the shadow Troika's original has already cast over it, the lack of any meaningful throughline is deeply disappointing. Secondly, it's simply not a great action experience, marred with technical flaws, messy combat, missing core features, and an initially intriguing narrative that fails to stick the landing. Simply put, it's not the game we wanted or expected.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz (using data from GameDiscoverCo), the game is estimated to have sold 121,500 copies on Steam, reeling in a net revenue of around $4 million so far. Given the length of development time (Paradox approved the project back in 2015), and the no doubt exorbitant costs associated with it, that number seems fairly slight, even if it doesn't account for console and other PC platform sales.

Paradox's CEO Frederik Wester has since stated that its overestimation of sales "lies fully with us [Paradox] as a publisher," noting that "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 to our core segments and, at the same time, we'll evaluate how we best develop World of Darkness' strong brand catalog in the future."

"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." The game's two DLCs, Loose Cannon and The Flower and The Flame, will still release in 2026, but I don't expect that we'll see much beyond that.

It's been an odd few years for the World of Darkness. In a post-Bloodlines world, few of the IP's videogame endeavors have really hit the mark. While Draw Distance's New York chronicle remains a standout, Swansong, despite its promise, released with technical issues and earned fairly mixed reviews. Then, Sharkmob's well-liked but ill-fated battle royale Bloodhunt struggled to combat cheaters and stand out in the multiplayer space, and as a result is set to shutter next year (that one stings).

As TTRPG-inspired videogames continue to pop up left, right, and center, I have dreams of what could be if the right developer with the right funding came along. For now, however, those dreams remain unfulfilled.