Paradox confirms Bloodlines 2 has missed sales targets
The long-awaited sequel has fallen short of sales expectations after a protracted development cycle involving multiple studios.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 publisher Paradox Interactive has written down SEK 355 million ($37.4 million) in capitalized development costs after the long-gestating sequel underperformed.
The Swedish publisher said the write-down is based on an updated sales forecast made 30 days after the title launched.
Paradox said it is pleased with the work of Bloodlines 2 developer Sumo Digital—which took charge of the project in 2023 after multiple studios had been relieved of development duties—but confirmed the title has fallen short of expectations.
"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," said Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester in a note to investors.
"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."
Paradox still intends to release two expansions for Bloodlines 2 in the coming year. "Our post-release plan remains firm," added Wester.
The past few years have been chastening for Paradox, which last year said 'overconfidence' led to 'undisciplined' decision-making that ultimately resulted in the costly cancellation of Life by You and the fractious launch of Cities Skylines II—the latter of which was recently handed over to a new developer after long-time custodian Colossal Order stepped away from the franchise.