Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 Slammed For Day One DLC Scandal And Pathetic Preorder Numbers In Game Stores
Retail leaks show just a few preorders across nearly 50 stores, a humiliating stat that makes even BioWare’s infamous flop 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' look like a blockbuster.
Summary
- Preorder data is grim, just 15 copies reserved across nearly 50 stores, putting Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 below Dragon Age The Veilguard levels.
- A $30 day-one DLC scandal forced the publisher to backtrack, but trust damage remains, and Steam sales rankings keep sliding.
- Critics describe the combat as clunky and ‘awkward,’ leaving fears that this long-delayed sequel could become 2025’s biggest RPG flop.
The sequel to one of the most cult-loved PC RPGs of the 2000s is shaping up to be more of a cautionary tale than a triumphant return.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has limped through years of delays, messy development resets, and fan skepticism.
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And now that we’re in the home stretch, the sales data is out. Spoiler: it’s ugly.
We’re talking preorder numbers so low they make Dragon Age: The Veilguard look healthy by comparison. That’s like saying you lost a foot race to a guy with his shoelaces tied together.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Retail insiders are reporting that nearly 50 game stores combined have only 15 preorders total for Bloodlines 2.
Not 15 per store. Fifteen. Period. That’s not even enough to fill a classroom.
For perspective, when Dragon Age: The Veilguard was a month out from launch, it had 31 preorders across the same stores.
And that game went on to become the punchline of a thousand “how not to make an RPG” threads.
Want to know what a successful pre-launch looks like? Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, same distance from release, sat at 142 copies sold in those stores.
That’s the gulf between “healthy interest” and “please don’t cancel my shift, boss, I swear people will show up eventually.”
Steam Charts Don’t Look Better
It’s not just retail. Over on Steam, the picture is equally grim. Bloodlines 2 has dropped out of the top 150 best-sellers, sinking into the 200s.
This, despite having a large following count from years of hype. Remember, this game had players in test builds eight years ago. Eight.
Normally, pent-up anticipation translates into strong preorder spikes. Here, it looks like anticipation has curdled into apathy.
Fans aren’t rushing to slap down cash. They’re quietly backing away, like someone just opened a coffin and the smell wasn’t great.
Day One DLC Fiasco
Part of the trust problem came from a tone-deaf DLC announcement a few weeks back. Out of the six playable clans, two were set to be locked behind a $30 day-one paywall.
The internet’s reaction was… let’s just say colorful. “Greedy dirt” was one of the politer phrases being thrown around.
After the backlash, the publisher walked it back. The clans are now included in the base game. Normally, you’d expect a sales bump from that kind of mea culpa.
But instead, preorder numbers actually kept sliding. Once you light that fire of distrust, throwing water on it doesn’t magically restore the house.
Development Hell
Bloodlines 2’s road to release is the stuff of project management horror stories.
Originally announced for 2020, the game was rebooted mid-development, shuffled between teams, and delayed multiple times.
By now five years have passed. Costs have ballooned. Direction has been second-guessed to death.
Even Polygon, which isn’t exactly known for torching big-budget releases, described the game as “two games stapled together.”
That’s not the kind of synergy marketing departments put on slides. That’s a warning label.
Press Spin vs. Player Reality
Critics who have gone hands-on don’t sound confident either. PC Gamer published a preview calling the game “richly authentic” and “dripping with brooding atmosphere,” which is a poetic way of saying “the wallpaper looks nice.”
But buried deeper in the piece was the actual verdict: combat feels awkward, frustrating, and not very fun.
The impression is that Bloodlines 2 looks and reads like a Vampire: The Masquerade experience but doesn’t play like one.
If swinging a claw or unleashing a blood magic power feels like homework, that’s a problem no amount of moody lighting fixes.
Combat Complaints
The previews highlight clunky first-person fights where players are regularly overwhelmed, sucker-punched, and forced to rely on fiddly powers that don’t flow naturally.
Some abilities feel like cheap “I win” buttons. Others are too complicated to manage in chaotic melees.
The result? Combat that doesn’t satisfy either side of the spectrum.
It’s not slick enough for action fans, and it’s not tactical enough for RPG purists. That’s a dangerous no-man’s-land for a franchise that built its reputation on immersive role-playing and choice.
Identity Drama
Another controversy sticking to Bloodlines 2 is its character design.
The cast leans into gender-ambiguous aesthetics, which has sparked debate (and outright fights) on Steam’s community hubs.
Complaints about this angle have led to players being banned from forums, which only amplified the noise.
Instead of focusing conversation on gameplay or story, the spotlight has shifted to whether the designs are pandering or progressive.
Whichever side you land on, it’s one more distraction pulling attention away from what should be the selling point: the actual game.
And If all this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen the script before. Dragon Age: The Veilguard was also delayed, redesigned mid-development, and launched to a shrug.
Critics tried to spin it, but players weren’t fooled. Now Bloodlines 2 is tracking even lower in preorder charts than Veilguard did.
That’s not just bad.
That’s “our investors are going to start asking where all the money went” bad.
Can It Recover?
Well, I mean… preorders aren’t destiny, right? A game can launch with a whimper and still pull off a comeback if the final product surprises people.
No Man’s Sky eventually crawled out of its grave, though it took years of updates. But Bloodlines 2 is releasing into a market less forgiving than ever.
Players have backlogs taller than Dracula’s castle. They’re not interested in shelling out $70 for a game that needs “fixes down the line.”
Unless the launch version is solid, word of mouth will bury it before the devs can patch.
The Vampire Legacy Problem
The stakes are especially high because the original Bloodlines has near-mythic status. Released in 2004, it was buggy, rushed, and underfunded.
Yet fans adored its role-playing depth and atmosphere. Over time, modders kept it alive, turning it into a cult classic.
That legacy is a double-edged sword. On one hand, there’s built-in demand. On the other, expectations are sky-high.
A messy, half-baked sequel doesn’t just flop. It risks tainting the whole franchise’s reputation for years.
So, here’s my 2 cents
At this stage, the writing on the wall looks grim. Tiny preorder numbers, bad buzz from previews, and a community still side-eyeing the DLC scandal don’t scream comeback story.
And, oh boy, unless Bloodlines 2 delivers a shockingly polished and engaging launch, it’s headed for the coffin faster than you can say “Nosferatu.”
The only thing scarier than a vampire is a vampire RPG that can’t convince people to buy it.
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