Paradox makes a drastic move and admits to a series of mistakes that led to Bloodlines 2’s failure. „The responsibility lies fully with us”

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Following the underwhelming launch and poor sales of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, Paradox Interactive announced it would be absorbing a loss of 355 million Swedish krona (approximately $37 million) related to the game’s development costs.

Sales didn’t meet expectations

While Paradox Interactive hasn’t released official sales figures, data from GameDiscoverCo indicates that Bloodlines 2 sold around 121,500 copies on Steam, generating approximately $4 million in revenue. This is a relatively low amount considering the game’s lengthy development period and associated costs.

Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester acknowledged that the company had been too optimistic about how well the project would do.

We always believed this game had great potential, being a quality title with a well-known brand in a popular genre. However, after a month of sales, we’re disappointed to see that numbers aren’t meeting our expectations, forcing us to adjust our financial projections. As the publisher, we take full responsibility for this, stated Fredrik Wester.

Wester explained that the issue stemmed from Bloodlines 2 not being a good fit for Paradox Interactive. The company mainly specializes in intricate strategy games, and this project fell outside of their core expertise.

Looking back, this game fell outside our main areas of expertise, which made it hard to predict how well it would sell. Moving forward, we’ll concentrate our resources on our core business areas and also explore the best way to develop our World of Darkness brand in the future.

Paradox keeps its promises

Even though the company has been losing money, they’ve promised to still release the two extra story chapters that were included with the deluxe versions of the game.

We’re still on track with our plans for the game after launch,” Wester confirmed. “Players can expect updates and the expansions we’ve promised within the next year.

Development marked with problems

Paradox Interactive bought the rights to the Bloodlines franchise in 2015 and initially hired Hardsuit Labs to develop Bloodlines 2. The game repeatedly faced setbacks, and in 2020, the lead developers left the project, followed shortly after by the entire Hardsuit Labs team. Ultimately, The Chinese Room took over development, creating a game with a stronger emphasis on story and a more straightforward structure. Dan Pinchbeck, a creative director on the project, recently shared that the team knew it was a gamble to label the new game a sequel to the original Bloodlines.

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2025-11-28 15:05