10 years after buying White Wolf from CCP Games, and seven years after eliminating it as a "separate entity," Paradox Interactive is bringing it back as "the official licensing and publishing entity for all its transmedia properties, including Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Hunter: The Reckoning."
White Wolf will also serve as co-publisher of the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, which is set to launch in October.
"I’m incredibly excited and proud to bring back White Wolf as an independent business entity, taking the legendary World of Darkness IP portfolio into the future," World of Darkness EVP Marco Behrmann said in today's announcement. "Establishing a dedicated publishing wing for our internally developed tabletop role-playing games strengthens our already successful licensing business. This lets us develop both classic and new IPs faster and with a clearer long-term transmedia vision, always in collaboration with our passionate fans and partners.
All things White Wolf "will have direct access to the brand’s development resources and marketing support," Paradox said, along with "access to a global network of distributors and partners, ensuring that World of Darkness fans worldwide can experience the brand’s compelling stories." Which is all good, but again, I'm not clear how a new letterhead drives that in ways that World of Darkness could not.
Even so, the troubled history of the White Wolf brand makes it an interesting move. White Wolf was founded in 1991 and merged with CCP—yes, the EVE Online people—in 2006, but a planned World of Darkness MMO (which seemed, and honestly still seems, like a can't-miss idea) floundered and was eventually cancelled in 2014.
By some measures, seven years is a long time—long enough for White Wolf's controversial past to be mostly forgotten, or at least to have blown over. Even so, resurrecting the brand strikes me as a bit of a head-scratcher: Is there really that much more brand strength and recognition in White Wolf than there is in World of Darkness? Maybe old-time tabletop gamers will feel differently, but when I think of Vampire (or Werewolf, which is where I first came into contact with the games), I think World of Darkness first and foremost.
I've asked Paradox if it's willing to share any more insights into its reasons for bringing back the White Wolf brand, and will update if I receive a reply. In the meantime, here's a closer look at what started all of this: Bloodlines 2, as noted, is now set for launch in October, and despite plenty of well-documented troubles of its own, it seems to be coming together very nicely.
