World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Gargaune]

Bullish

>> enhance(4,6)

ish

>> decrypt

shi

>> chatgpt("shi")

t

>> recompile(all)

Bullshit

 

[gaussgunner]

Those are Cyberpunk numbers. Is this true delusion or a desperate lie to induce hope in the shareholders?

Typical Jim Cramer pump-n-dump bullshit.

 

[Tyranicon]

"This game is targeted at 25m copies sold."

 

[whydoibother]

Maybe they "sold 25 million", as in they negotiated a big fee with Microsoft for GamePass, years ago when sentiment was indeed bullish.
So as long as they release ANYTHING, they are already making money, with those guaranteed sales.
Obviously I'm just speculating, but the game is advertised on Xbox's website, and money was cheap back when it was announced, and Microsoft was on a spending spree, and people were legit hyped for it. Would you be surprised if Microsoft signed a deal with Paradox to make this available to all GamePass users and pay Paradox millions of sales worth for the privilidge?
Would also explain why the game isn't cancelled, or rebranded, and they insist on releasing it as the same game that was marketed (and was signed into contract).

 

[Semiurge]

Modern psueds run focus tests with randoms off Craigslist, who have never played games before and inevitably start asking the Devs questions and putting the controller down

That damn untapped market. If these studios would just stop chasing casuals there's be more quality games.

My wife believes that Fabien is a humanity bar that you can’t cheat. Where in the first it was easy to maintain humanity 10 and lie, kill, and whatever, here the choices you make, Fabien will know and hold against you regardless.

So, "Fabian approves +1" and he will be romanceable?

Those are Cyberpunk numbers. Is this true delusion or a desperate lie to induce hope in the shareholders?

For Cyberpunk numbers they will have to contract CDProjekt. Next time, if there will be a next time.

 

[The President]

There is no way they were expecting 25 million in sales for BL2, that’s just insane.

 

[Storyfag]

It's not 25mil copies sold. It's 25mil revenue generated

 

[scytheavatar]

Maybe they "sold 25 million", as in they negotiated a big fee with Microsoft for GamePass, years ago when sentiment was indeed bullish.
So as long as they release ANYTHING, they are already making money, with those guaranteed sales.
Obviously I'm just speculating, but the game is advertised on Xbox's website, and money was cheap back when it was announced, and Microsoft was on a spending spree, and people were legit hyped for it. Would you be surprised if Microsoft signed a deal with Paradox to make this available to all GamePass users and pay Paradox millions of sales worth for the privilidge?
Would also explain why the game isn't cancelled, or rebranded, and they insist on releasing it as the same game that was marketed (and was signed into contract).

Microsoft valuing BG3 at 5 million shows how much they see the CRPG genre as being worth. Paradox will be lucky to get 5 million from Microsoft for a sequel to a game that sold less than Arcanum.

 

[Wesp5]

Paradox will be lucky to get 5 million from Microsoft for a sequel to a game that sold less than Arcanum.

Are there any numbers on how well Bloodlines sold over the years? Because it is still quite expensive compared to other games from that time except for sales.

 

[Fedora Master]

Is this true delusion

PDX are fairly delusional, so...

 

[Herumor]

My wife believes that Fabien is a humanity bar that you can’t cheat. Where in the first it was easy to maintain humanity 10 and lie, kill, and whatever, here the choices you make, Fabien will know and hold against you regardless.

Your wife is putting more thought into this than the devs.

 

[whydoibother]

Paradox will be lucky to get 5 million from Microsoft for a sequel to a game that sold less than Arcanum.

Are there any numbers on how well Bloodlines sold over the years? Because it is still quite expensive compared to other games from that time except for sales.

GameSensor asks for money to see their data, but Google has this bit indexed:

In December 2023, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was bought by >$10K players for a total of $30K.

Thats for one month, but it is the Christmas month and powered by Bloodlines 2 hype. Still funny that Bloodlines 1 is selling better in 2023 than it did on release.

 

[Ryzer]

I have this on VGInsight just for Steam:

$8.2m​

gross revenue

649k​

units sold

https://vginsights.com/game/2600
All that money goes straight into Bobby Kotick's pockets.

 

[Alienman]

Ah, the gambler CEO is gambling. Or maybe they scored a weird government deal with the EU to incentivize people to get jabbed. People will get the game for free with the jab. However, it might work in the opposite way

 

[Gargaune]

Maybe they "sold 25 million", as in they negotiated a big fee with Microsoft for GamePass, years ago when sentiment was indeed bullish.

Or maybe it's a transcript error and it's not 25 million copies, but 25 million dollars. That'd be like some 350.000 copies at AAA price, very doable. Or maybe it's 25 million Swedish Krona, so around 35.000 full price copies, even more doable!

 

[Moink]

It's 100% a mistranslation, if it's dollars then 350k copies seems perfectly reasonable for an AA release but I doubt they'll even shift that many copies.

 

[Child of Malkav]

All that money goes straight into Bobby Kotick's pockets.

Please understand, he really, really needs that yacht.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Or maybe it's a transcript error and it's not 25 million copies, but 25 million dollars. That'd be like some 350.000 copies at AAA price, very doable. Or maybe it's 25 million Swedish Krona, so around 35.000 full price copies, even more doable!

Dude, spoiler that stuff. No one wants to be critically hit by math when they open up the page.

 

[whydoibother]

Maybe they "sold 25 million", as in they negotiated a big fee with Microsoft for GamePass, years ago when sentiment was indeed bullish.

Or maybe it's a transcript error and it's not 25 million copies, but 25 million dollars. That'd be like some 350.000 copies at AAA price, very doable. Or maybe it's 25 million Swedish Krona, so around 35.000 full price copies, even more doable!

Or just 2.5 million copies, which is an ambitions, but achievable goal for this sort of game.
Or maybe they think it will do Cyberpunk 2077 numbers for real.
There's options, could be a lot of things. Could even be something some redditor made up.

 

[Gargaune]

Could even be something some redditor made up.

...

See, if I were a Paradox stockholder, I'd develop a sudden interest in whether our CEO has a Reddit account right about now.

 

[Skinwalker]

All that being said, the concept of playing an Elder is much more interesting.

Is it? Elders are interesting to encounter as characters/antagonists in the course of the game, but it's hard to get into the mindset of a centuries-old vampire as a protagonist.

The idea of a thin-blood who diablerized an elder and is now hearing his voice in his/her head (along with rapid rise in power/level-ups) is a much more interesting one.

Tbh, that's an even more interesting concept than the Bloodlines protagonist who inexplicably has very potent blood with no real explanation (plus some very vague hints that your Sire may have been the taxi driver antediluvian rather than the beheaded chick).

Leave it to shitty walking simulator studio to get this simple concept completely backwards.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Someone at reddit making claims https://old.reddit.com/r/vtmb/comments/1ai8877/did_outstar_lie_to_us/koth5u8/

At Paradox shareholders' AGM [Annual General Meeting] we were told three things. "HSL delivered nothing usable." "The new team have had to start from scratch." "This game is targeted at 25m copies sold."

If this true, they're basicily targeting Elden Ring sales from a dev that made 2 Walk Sim and a bad Horror game..

 

[Delterius]

It is entirely possible that the Swedes have a double agent in the norwegian sovereign fund ready to buy 50 million copies of Bloodlines 2 as an educational game to be available in all norwegian schools (each child gets 20 keys).

 

[jackofshadows]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/532790/announcements/detail/4029101838400009221

Explore the World of Darkness
Hello again,

This is my 3rd dev diary, and I have used the last two to talk about the 1st and 2nd pillars of the game: Feel Like a Vampire[www.paradoxinteractive.com], which covered the player fantasy; Visceral Immersive combat[www.paradoxinteractive.com], which covers the action gameplay. Today I want to tell you about our 3rd and final game pillar: "Explore The World of Darkness," which covers the setting, society, characters, story, and RPG elements of the game. We'll be talking in-depth about RPG elements at a later date, so today I am going to focus mainly on the setting, society, and characters.

The World of Darkness is the larger umbrella for the Vampire The Masquerade IP and the related games. It handles the supernatural in a mature and grounded way, basing it on the premise that vampires, werewolves, and ghosts are actually real, but are hidden from our contemporary human society. Video games offer a unique perspective on this world that other mediums don't, being able to walk around it and explore it. Our goal with this pillar was to create a version of Seattle that is authentic to The World of Darkness IP and makes you believe that this hidden side of Seattle, where vampires are in control, could be real and that in contrast the human world feels more alien to you and potentially unreal. To that end, we didn't set about making an exact replica of Seattle, as our priority wasn't to represent the human world, but the vampire one. The Seattle you experience in Bloodlines 2 is a kind of "best-of" Seattle where we've taken key landmarks and brought them in closer together. For example, Pioneer Square is a key location, and it speaks to us of the old city and its founders (some of which were vampires that you will meet), but we also have volunteer park, which in reality is on the outskirts of the city but we loved the idea of doing a creepy mission there that reveals something sinister beneath this iconic conservatory.

We want you to feel like you are seeing Seattle through the eyes of a vampire, so we have also made buildings taller, lights brighter, and alleyways darker to give an overall heightened feeling to what you are seeing as if you are looking through the eyes of an apex predator. For a better explanation of this, I suggest you read Ben Matthews dev diary on our neo-noir art style.[www.paradoxinteractive.com]

In Bloodlines 1 you were a new vampire in a city with a large Anarch presence where the Camarilla don’t have complete dominance. For Bloodlines 2 we have flipped this on its head. You play Phyre, an Elder vampire (~400 years old) in a city where Camarilla has been dominant for decades, and any hint of Anarch sympathy is squashed. Phyre's number 1 loyalty is to herself, but she is wise enough to respect the power of the Camarilla and, more importantly, the Masquerade. Within the story Phyre earns a seat at the top-table of the Camarilla as the court's Sheriff, giving her the court's protection but also a powerful authority within Seattle's vampire society. This is an RPG, of course, so you can roleplay Sheriff in multiple ways, maybe you are a loyal Sheriff of the Camarilla, or an Anarch sympathiser working from within to undermine the court, or maybe you're a self-centred Elder vampire playing the different factions off each other to your advantage.

Phyre's motivation in the story is driven (at least initially) by regaining her power - she has awoken after 100 years in torpor (vampire hibernation) 6000 miles from home with markings all over her body which are limiting her powers. This sets up the narrative context of the ability tree (which we will show in due course) which instead of being about adding new powers to Phyre, like levelling up in the pen-and-paper RPG, you are unlocking her existing powers. Over her 300 years roaming the old world, Phyre had gained many powers, not only those from the disciplines of her clan.
An important part of the Masquerade is that vampires are hidden in plain sight in our society. There are several vampire hangouts in the city which, to a passerby appear innocent, but to those in the know, are important places in vampire society. For example, the little old lady who runs the all-night coffee shop may not be as sweet and defenceless as she seems at first glance. A key location the player often returns to, is Weaver Tower, a Seattle corporate HQ that is actually the front for the Camarilla, inspired by the downtown skyscrapers in Seattle and giving the city's Prince a skyline view over their domain.

Lastly, there can be no World of Darkness without light - the world of humans. The city is populated with "civilians," unaware that you are a vampire walking among them. Whilst this may seem great to a vampire - free-ranged food on every street - it also comes with risk, as using your vampiric powers or feeding in front of witnesses can trigger a Masquerade breach, and while you are Sheriff, even you are not above the law and could have the court's Scourge sent to deal with you if you are reckless on the streets of the emerald city. So make sure to hunt like a vampire: stalking from rooftops, hunting in alleyways, isolating your prey and if you are observed, deal with witnesses swiftly.

I hope you enjoyed hearing more about the setting and world of Bloodlines 2. We look forward to sharing more information with you in future dev diaries.

Good night!
Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director

 

[Lambach]

It looks like my worst fears about Bloodlines 2 are coming true.

It looks like it won't be an unmitigated, spectacular dumpsterfire that we can all point and laugh at, generating meme after meme and having fun with it while not even playing it. The Chinese Room seem just competent enough not to release a catastrophic trainwreck, but something far, far worse instead - a completely dull, soul-sucking, brain-numbing mediocrity that has absolutely nothing of worth to remember about it, good or bad.

Styrofoam. White noise on a TV screen. Lorem Ipsum.