Can’t wait for the next sequel that will be some kind of live-service multiplayer game with lots of cosmetic DLC.
Paradox Takes the Blame for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Sales Flop, Announces $37 Million Write-Down
Submitted 8 hours ago by simple@piefed.social to games@lemmy.world
Comments
rafoix@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
mp3@lemmy.ca 4 hours ago
If you don’t plan on making a successor that plays and contains the features the userbase would expect, don’t name it like it’s a sequel.
They ruined the name of a perfectly good franchise just to attract the fanbase, nobody wins and everyone is angry.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Wasn’t the studios fault
They fought to change the name since the beginning because they knew it would be impossible to deliver a real sequel and while this name might get initial sales it would cause blowback killing the game almost immediately…
Which is exactly what happened.
Like, they’d have loved to make Masquerade 2, but they weren’t given the time or funds to make it.
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
The worst part is that this failure will probably kill any chance of The Chinese Room getting to actually take a proper swing at this, from scratch, with time and a real budget. It really feels like if they were allowed to do that they would hit it out of the park. Bloodlines 2 is a much better game than the review scores suggest, mostly weighed down by the expectations people put in the Bloodlines name.
Agent_Karyo@piefed.world 7 hours ago
Chinese Room is clearly a bad fit for Bloodlines. They have zero experience with RPG games.
They make good walking-sim style gaming experiences with strong atmosphere and world-building, but they've never made any RPGs.
Their gameplay also tends to a bit subpar. The original Bloodlines had some flaws with gameplay (combat), but you still had a lot of different gameplay options and approaches.
And why shouldn't people have expectations for a strong roleplaying experience and player freedom for a Bloodlines game?
Agent_Karyo@piefed.world 7 hours ago
A statement from one of the Paradox PR reps:
"I actually played Bloodlines 1 quite recently, and it is a good game, but it is also an old game, and there are many things that would not fly today," Lilja said. "But I understand why people were super psyched by it in 2004, because it had a lot of cool [elements], and the feeling of being a vampire is really strong, regardless of other features. But I think people, they remember their feelings about it. And if they replayed it, I think they would see that it's a competently good game by 2004 standards, now that it's patched.
Seems like their approach to Bloodlines 2 isn't much of "high flyer" in the year 2025.
In defence of the PR rep, they were open about Bloodlines 2 not having much to do with the original and that it was more of vampire themed linear action game.
But in that case, why would you have internal targets of 2M+ initial sales if your plan is to have a radical departure from a well known cult classic RPG known for its roleplaying and strong writing?
rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 5 hours ago
I honestly don’t know what Paradox was smoking with this one. They get the license, cool, they hand it off to a studio that…while is known for being a support dev or doing ports they DID manage to get the original Bloodlines writer on board and then it was delay, delay, delay, fire the creative team, more delay, switch studios, start completely over, call it a day, and then claim “yeah we’re not going to make one of these style games again…we’d rather continue to nickle and dime our customers with strategy games.”
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 hours ago
They were smoking the drugs they bought from printing money with bad overpriced dlcs.
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
Paradox really needs a management shakeup.
network_switch@lemmy.ml 2 hours ago
Paradox has lately been really good at admitting fault and then mismanaging the next big game outside of their bread and butter grand strategy games. They need to shake up their management because it’s becoming clear they’re giving unrealistic timelines/budgets/demands for these games
Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 hours ago
WoD is probably my favorite but I’m not touching a paradox game cos they have the reputation of shit
BlackVenom@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
They’re fucking up left and right.
Sunsofold@lemmings.world 23 minutes ago
Publishers are a key ingredient in the recipe for trash games. Buying IP and telling some dev team that is doing it for the paycheck to slap something together is not making a game, it’s parasitism.