Swedish publisher Paradox has purchased “White wolf and all properties” from EVE Online firm CCP – a final nail in the coffin of the latter’s troubled plans for a World Of Darkness MMO. This also means that Paradox now owns the rights to Vampire: The Masquerade.
It’s Paradox’s “biggest investment ever;” White Wolf will, however “operate as an independent entity with a dedicated team.”
Paradox’s VP of Acquisition & Portfolio Strategy Shams Jorjani revealed the news on Twitter, saying that “We’ve been huge fans of the white wolf IPs for a long time especially World of Darkness/Vampire. Gonna be great to give it some fresh blood” and confirming that the purchase “includes everything,” even assets CCP created for unreleased games.
In a press release, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester says that, “Like Paradox’s games, White Wolf’s properties have dedicated, passionate communities. While there are similarities in spirit, White Wolf’s IPs have very different themes than Paradox’s titles, and deserve their own brand and team.”
A Swedish-language report on digital.di has Paradox boss Fred Wester saying “this is our biggest investment to date”, and claims the purchase involved “several tens of millions” – Paradox confirm to us that this is in Swedish Krona rather than US dollars or Euros; for reference, 10m SEK is approximately $1.2m.
Wester said that Paradox paid cash for the acquisition, and notes that Vampire is particularly exciting as it is “the world’s second best-selling role-playing and is special because half of all players are women.”
White Wolf was a tabletop RPG and book publisher most famous for its Vampire: The Masquerade and World of Darkness pen’n’paper roleplaying games. The former led to two PC games, Redemption and the cult-classic Bloodlines, while the latter’s ‘modern gothic’ setting was to become an MMO until its cancellation in 2014. EVE devs CCP purchased White Wolf in 2006, but had yet to do anything with it.
In the same press release, CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson writes that “At CCP, we have great admiration for the White Wolf brands and communities, and it was extremely important to us that the acquiring company share the same respect and understanding. With Paradox, we know we are leaving the brands in good hands.”
