Skip to main content PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES Search PC Gamer View Profile Movies & TV Gaming Industry PC Gaming Show Newsletter Signup Community Guidelines Affiliate Links Meet the team About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine Subscription Why subscribe? Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99Subscribe now Gamescom 2025 Essential Hardware Battlefield 6 PC Gamer quizzes! Recommended reading Bloodlines fans rage as Paradox locks 2 playable clans behind $30 DLC: 'Is Paradox smoking crack?' Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2: Everything we know Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is finally launching on October 21, and yes you'll technically be able to play as a Malkavian vampire Gaming Industry Bloodlines 2 studio The Chinese Room has bought its own independence, but also laid off employees in the process Ex-Dragon Age lead hopes Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 pulls an 'Expedition 33 or Baldur's Gate 3' by leaning into the combat-light, roleplaying-heavy gameplay of the tabletop version 'We're not making GTA': Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is channeling the best part of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided—a dense hub instead of a huge open world Gaming Industry Bloodlines 2 developer The Chinese Room has laid off employees, but Paradox says the game is still coming in October Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Bloodlines 2 developers try to justify the game's DLC clans, but it's not very convincing: 'We have been expanding it from where we originally planned to land' Andy Chalk 21 August 2025 The long-awaited Bloodlines sequel will launch with six playable clans, but you'll need to pay extra for two of them. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: The Chinese Room) It didn't go over super-well when Paradox revealed yesterday that two of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2's six playable clans will be available via some rather pricey DLC. Especially after the game's infamously rough development, you might think that Paradox and developer The Chinese Room would want to engender goodwill among existing and potential Bloodlines fans, and yet bizarrely they went the opposite way—and people reacted precisely as any reasonable person would have predicted. But why? Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Bloodlines 2 narrative director Ian Thomas explained that the game has changed significantly over its development, based on playtesting and feedback from the Bloodlines community, "including a massive amount of story content and features and all the rest of it." "So we have been expanding it from where we originally planned to land it, I think, constantly, and Paradox have been really good when we go, or when the clients go, or when Paradox go, 'We should add a bit more here. Let's push the date back'," Thomas said. "As you know, the date has pushed back, but that has been to fatten it out into something that we feel does land where the players want it." Related Articles Bloodlines fans rage as Paradox locks 2 playable clans behind $30 DLC: 'Is Paradox smoking crack?' Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2: Everything we know Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is finally launching on October 21, and yes you'll technically be able to play as a Malkavian vampire The studio has been adding new content "even over the past few weeks," Thomas said, and design director Jey Hicks added that it's not all "just fluff that we're chucking in. It's all got that same quality there." That presumably includes the Toreador and Lasombra clans locked inside the Shadows and Silk DLC, which promises "unique abilities and playstyles" for each. A lot more effort goes into making a whole vampire clan than, say, new hairdo or outfit. But, to be blunt: So what? A lot of unhappiness over the Bloodlines 2 clan DLC arises from the fact that it will be available on launch day, so it's not as though The Chinese Room is continuing development (on this, at least) beyond the game's release: It could have gone out with the base game, Paradox and TCR simply chose to hive it off and charge more money. Frankly, I don't have a problem with that: Run your biz, and deal with what follows, as you see fit. I do find the decision to go this way truly baffling, though. I knew the moment I read about it that there'd be a tremendous backlash to the pay extra clans, and surely Paradox must have as well. People have been getting mad about day one DLC for roughly as long as it's existed—here's people getting mad about Mass Effect 3 day-one DLC in 2012—and meandering justifications from developers—like this one, about Mass Effect 3 day-one DLC in 2012—have never done much to soothe foul moods. Paradox in particular should be aware of this: Gamers have been howling about its enthusiastic DLC practices literally for years. It really does make me wonder why the company would voluntarily shoot itself in yet another foot like this: Especially given that Paradox wants to wash its hands of the whole thing anyway, why not throw the Bloodlines community a bone, take a small financial hit (the DLC is expensive but I doubt very much that sales are going to have a meaningful impact on Paradox's quarterly financials), and come out of it looking good? I'm not an overpriced CEO so maybe I'm missing the big picture here, but if I was in charge that's 100% what we'd be doing. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. There's also the very real possibility that all the negative attention generated by the controversy will hurt sales enough to offset any potential revenues by the DLC. I really just don't see an upside here at all. Anyway, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 comes out on October 21. Despite everything, I have high hopes: The Chinese Room isn't an RPG studio but it is a great storyteller, and that's what I'm here for. Best PC gaming kit 2025All our favorite gear 👉Check out our list of guides👈 1. Best gaming chair: Secretlab Titan Evo 2. Best gaming desk: Secretlab Magnus Pro XL 3. Best gaming headset: HyperX Cloud Alpha 4. Best gaming keyboard: Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless 5. Best gaming mouse: Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed 6. Best PC controller: Xbox Wireless Controller 7. Best steering wheel: Logitech G Pro Racing Wheel 8. Best microphone: Shure MV6 USB Gaming Microphone 9. Best webcam: Elgato Facecam MK.2 Paradox Interactive Social Links Navigation US News Lead Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Bloodlines fans rage as Paradox locks 2 playable clans behind $30 DLC: 'Is Paradox smoking crack?' Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2: Everything we know Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is finally launching on October 21, and yes you'll technically be able to play as a Malkavian vampire Bloodlines 2 studio The Chinese Room has bought its own independence, but also laid off employees in the process Ex-Dragon Age lead hopes Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 pulls an 'Expedition 33 or Baldur's Gate 3' by leaning into the combat-light, roleplaying-heavy gameplay of the tabletop version 'We're not making GTA': Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is channeling the best part of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided—a dense hub instead of a huge open world Latest in RPG How to beat Everdark Gladius in Elden Ring Nightreign Bloodlines fans rage as Paradox locks 2 playable clans behind $30 DLC: 'Is Paradox smoking crack?' 'Let's fix every problem anyone has': Path of Exile 2 director says its massive next patch should pull the game out of its Dawn of the Hunt depression era Path of Exile 2's next major update lands next week, adding a new campaign act, a massive list of buffs, and—yes, finally—a way to trade while the other player is offline 'To put it bluntly, it was copying others': Former Dragon Quest producer says he left Square Enix because the developer was too focused on making 'safe' games Final Fantasy 14's Monster Hunter collab has two very easy steps: buy the game, spend 500 hours beating the game Latest in News EA just confirmed the most popular class in the Battlefield 6 beta, and it shines a spotlight on a major balance problem 'This works better than expected': Doom on a charging station looks surprisingly playable but may have the most awkward controls ever Splitgate fans, rejoice: Peer-to-peer multiplayer is coming next week, so you can keep on playing after the servers shut down Why did Team Cherry's devs stay so quiet about Hollow Knight: Silksong? 'All we could really say is, we're still working on it', so they stopped doing that I got a look at the first AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme handheld, and no, that's not an ROG Ally you're looking at, it's the MSI Claw A8 'One of the most powerful DDoS botnets to ever exist' has been taken down by the DoJ with help from Amazon Web Services, Google, Cloudflare and others HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards Best gaming laptop in 2025: I've put the best of this new generation head-to-head and we have a winner Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Elgato 4K S review MSI Stealth 18 HX AI review MSI MPG CoreLiquid P13 360 review Asus ROG Falcata Alienware 18 Area-51 (2025) review PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Contact Future's experts Terms and conditions Privacy policy Cookies policy Advertise with us Accessibility Statement Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Please login or signup to comment Please wait...