Interview: Sharkmob Co-Founder Martin Hultberg And Bloodhunt Marketing Director André Persson

thegamer.com:

Ever since its reveal, there’s been an air of confusion surrounding Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt. Why take an IP that’s generally known for its vampires hiding their abilities to fit into and move around society only to give them AK47s and even more of a bloodlust than usual?

That’s a question that Sharkmob seems to get asked a lot, if the knowing smiles from marketing director André Persson and Sharkmob co-founder Martin Hultberg are anything to go by. “We went for Vampire: The Masquerade as soon as we understood it was an option for us,” Hultberg explains. “It felt like such an awesome opportunity, being long-time fans of the game. It also felt like a license with great potential for the game we wanted to create.”

Related: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt Preview: This Battle Royale Has Fangs

Although reactions to Bloodhunt have largely shifted towards being more positive, Sharkmob was well aware of the backlash it was going to face when announcing the game, going as far as to say that it “expected” such a thing.

“Just the idea of a Vampire: The Masquerade game paired with a battle royale is controversial in itself for some fans,” Persson says. “It is traditionally a very introspective RPG experience about plotting and intrigue, with the threat of violence more than the actual promise of it, although, depending on who you played with, combat and violence could easily be a big part of the game. For us, it was simply awesome to get to explore that aspect of Vampire the Masquerade; what happens when diplomacy fails and the guns come out.”

As Persson mentions, the main reason why Bloodhunt has drawn so many raised eyebrows is because of how much it deviates from the tone that fans of the tabletop game know and