Paradox Interactive Takes Duty for Disappointing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Sales, Announces $37 Million Write-Down
Stockholm, Sweden – November 27, 2025 – Paradox Interactive has officially acknowledged its responsibility for the underwhelming commercial performance of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, announcing a significant write-down of 355 million Swedish Krona (approximately $37 million USD) in capitalized development costs.The move comes after a month of sales data following the game’s October launch.
The long-awaited sequel to the 2004 cult classic Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines landed with a “mixed” reception on Steam, falling short of fan expectations. While the game received a 7/10 score from IGN, with our review stating it “takes another flawed but unique and remarkable bite at the jugular,” sales figures haven’t reflected the potential of the beloved IP.
In a statement released to financial markets link to Paradox News Release,Paradox CEO fredrik Wester directly attributed the shortfall to the publisher,not to the development team,The Chinese Room,who were brought in to complete the project after a prolonged period of development challenges.
“Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a strong vampire fantasy and we are pleased with the developers’ work on the game,” Wester stated. “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.”
Wester further explained that the game’s performance highlighted a misjudgment on paradox’s part, given it falls outside their core gaming genres.”In hindsight, it is clear that this has made it difficult for us to gauge sales,” he admitted.
Looking forward, Paradox intends to focus its investment on its core game segments and will re-evaluate its strategy for developing the broader World of Darkness franchise. this write-down signals a shift in focus for the publisher, prioritizing areas where they have demonstrated consistent success and a stronger understanding of market demand.
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