Paradox and The Chinese Room are currently juggling the impending launch of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 with the backlash from last week's DLC announcement, which went down like a fart in an elevator.
The long-awaited vampire RPG is finally launching on October 21, but the recent release date reveal was immediately soured by the Shadows & Silk DLC's premium cost. Locking what are essentially classes inside paid DLC was never going to go down well, but the response has been particularly bad this time, since Bloodlines 2 was already on pretty shaky ground.
If you've missed the drama, here's the skinny: on launch day, you'll be able to get access to the Silk & Shadows DLC via the Bloodlines 2 Premium Edition or by picking it up separately. On its own, it'll set you back $21.99/£18.69. The DLC adds two extra clans to the roster, which serve to flesh out protagonist Phyre's background while giving them new powers to play with, so it's not a wee cosmetic addition (unlike the Santa Monica Memories DLC).
The response was immediate and overwhelmingly negative, leading to criticism of Paradox's DLC strategy more broadly, along with the threat of cancelled pre-orders.
Paradox and The Chinese Room initially defended the DLC. Narrative director Ian Thomas said that the studio had been "expanding [Bloodlines 2] from where we originally planned to land it," but that sounds more like wonky project management and a scope problem rather than a good reason to include day-one DLC.
A Paradox PR rep, meanwhile, told PCGamesN, "It's not uncommon for games to come out with additional content, and given the nature of the game as it stands, where it's been through a lot, this is a way to get additional players in that have been asking for that content, and asking for those clans, on day one."
But Paradox might now be realising that siloing off clans in DLC is actually a terrible way to get more players through the door. If somebody is on the fence about picking up Bloodlines 2, the prospect of spending even more money just to get some more clans is unlikely to change their mind.
As spotted by ResetEra (cheers GamesRadar), a World of Darkness community developer posted an update on the Bloodlines 2 Discord yesterday afternoon. "We are listening to your feedback about the Lasombra and Toreador clan access, and we’re making adjustments ahead of launch to reflect this," they said. "We will share more information about what this means as soon as possible."
They then directed folk towards a World of Darkness Twitch stream airing later today, at 11 am ET/4 pm BST. This might just end up giving prospective players a taste of the Lasombra and Toreador clans, but there could also be some news about changes to the DLC. I'll be tuning in, so keep an eye out for updates.
A complete 180, releasing the DLC for free, seems unlikely, but not unprecedented. Last year, Paradox and Colossal Order released Cities: Skylines 2's first post-launch DLC, Beach Properties. "This is a disgrace," one player said at the time. It was a simple asset pack, introduced some meagre new additions and didn't include actual beaches. A month later, Paradox removed it from sale, doled out refunds and gave it to everyone for free.
Another mea culpa could be on the way.
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