Paradox Interactive Acquires White Wolf From CCP Games
After the World of Darkness MMO was canceled in April of last year following some impressive tech demos and a long bout of silence, many fans held out hope that CCP would one day pick the title back up. After all, they still owned the IP holders, White Wolf Publishing. They would have to do something with their IPs eventually, right?
As of today, it has been announced that this is no longer the case. Paradox Interactive have, surprisingly, bought White Wolf Publishing from CCP Games in an "all-cash deal." The exact amount White Wolf Publishing was purchased for has not been disclosed as of this time. As a result of the deal, White Wolf Publishing will become an independently-operated subsidiary of Paradox Interactive with its own team headed by Tobias Sjögren, who was formerly the EVP of Business Development at Paradox.
On the subject of the acquisition, Paradox's CEO Fredrik Wester had this to say: “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.” He goes on to say, “We have great respect for White Wolf’s gaming worlds and see big opportunities for their expansion in the future under our new subsidiary.” CCP's CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson left a vote of confidence by saying that "With Paradox, we know we are leaving the brands in good hands."
At this point in time, it seems as if Paradox are not intending to make use of White Wolf Publishing's properties to make White Wolf-themed versions of their own games. Paradox's in-house efforts have always leaned towards a more historically-accurate setting and, although it would be interesting to see a grand strategy game of vampires and werewolves, it seems unlikely that they may pursue that route anytime soon. Instead, the subsidiary will "pursue development opportunities across relevant categories of games under the White Wolf Publishing name," likely striking out to create games in genres it deems fit.
