This isn’t that big of a surprise, but it’s a welcome development nonetheless: Paradox Interactive and Microsoft announced that role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines II will be coming as a Smart Delivery release for the Xbox Series X.
The two companies made the announcement during today’s Xbox 20/20 event today, showing a lineup of third-party games that would be coming to Microsoft’s next-generation home gaming console. This is an important event, as it not only gives consumers a better idea of what games are coming to the Xbox Series X, but it also shows what “next gen” gaming looks like. It looks crisper than what I remember seeing last year at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
And since it has Smart Delivery — think of it as cross-buy between console generations — if folks buy it for Xbox One, they’ll be able to play it on the Xbox Series X as well. So this information helps them make purchase decisions ahead of the consoles’ holiday releases. So unless PlayStation 5 has an answer for Smart Delivery, consumers might favor the Xbox Series X over Sony’s next-gen box because of it.
It also gives the Xbox Series X roster two standout RPGs on its growing roster: Bloodlines II and CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2099.
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines II’s developer is Hardsuit Labs, and it’s a “spiritual successor” to the original, which defunct Troika Games released in 2004. Bloodlines has been a cult classic for years now, and one of its original writers, Brian Mistoda, is the narrative lead for Bloodlines II.