Paradox Interactive Responds to Bloodlines 2’s Commercial Failure With Major Write-Down

Paradox Interactive has admitted responsibility for the disappointing sales of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 | Image: Paradox

After years of delays, the long‑anticipated sequel was finally released on October 21, but reactions have been lukewarm. Steam reviews are currently “mixed,” and the Metacritic score sits at 62/100. Many critics feel it fails to recapture the charm of the original, with tedious, unengaging gameplay and an overall sense that the revival of the franchise is unfinished.

Now, after just 30 days on sale, Paradox announced a write‑down of 355 million SEK (around $37 million) in capitalized development costs, citing poor commercial performance.

Publisher Takes the Blame

Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester made it clear that the responsibility lies with the publisher, not the developer, The Chinese Room, which stepped in to rescue the troubled project back in 2023. “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a strong vampire fantasy, and we are pleased with the developers’ work on the game,” Wester said. 

"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 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 to our core segments and, at the same time, we’ll evaluate how we best develop World of Darkness’ strong brand catalogue in the future."

For context, Paradox is best known for grand strategy titles like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Stellaris, and Cities: Skylines. These games consistently attract millions of monthly players. By contrast, Bloodlines 2 was always something of an outlier, and according to Wester, that misalignment contributed to the publisher’s misjudgment.

While Paradox hasn’t shared official sales figures, estimates from GameDiscoverCo suggest the game sold around 121,500 copies on Steam, generating roughly $4 million in revenue. That’s nowhere near enough to cover the years of development costs.

Expansions Still Coming

Despite the financial setback, Paradox has promised to deliver the two expansions included in the Premium Edition. One will focus on vampire sheriff Benny Muldoon, while the other will spotlight nightclub owner Ysabella Moore. Wester reassured fans that the post‑release plan remains intact, with updates and expansions scheduled for the coming year.