Bloodhunt is adding Team Deathmatch and ditching seasonal battle passes

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Sharkmob is changing its live-service model after both player and dev feedback

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt
(Image credit: Sharkmob)

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt is getting a Team Deathmatch mode, a cheaper battle pass, and a brand-new approach to updates, according to a blog post shared by developer Sharkmob. 

GamesRadar+ also sat down with the studio to discuss the changes coming to the vampire-themed battle royale. Bloodhunt is "saying bye-bye to seasons" after discovering that the "cookie-cutter approach" didn't fit well for the young studio, product director David Sirland says during our interview. Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt launched in April of this year with a 100-tier, 12-week-long battle pass that costs about $10. The pass is cosmetics only, something Sharkmob promised would be the case back when we interviewed them last summer for the 2021 Future Games Show. The new battle pass will cost $5.99 or 600 tokens and won't be tied to a specific season.

The upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt update will also bring a brand new mode: 8v8 Team Deathmatch. The mode will take place on five different maps comprised of areas of the large battle royale map, with the first team to 50 kills getting the win. Timed universal ammo and loot spawns will help level the playing field. According to Sirland, the team wants the mode to offer new players a "place to practice the mechanics and get into all the nitty-gritty of using abilities and running on rooftops and shooting people," and veteran players a great "warmup mode." 

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After a few months of gameplay and feedback, Sharkmob also realized it wants to separate gameplay updates from content. "If something fails, everything gets delayed as well. And we realized the turnaround time if we missed the season, and the seasonal update with an important fix was 12 plus weeks, essentially, that doesn't really cut it," Sirland explains. 

Sharkmob is targeting monthly updates for Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt starting July 14, with a small hotfix patch following this summer update and a larger, gameplay-focused patch following that. The team is focusing on fixing a few major bugs they call "hydras" because they keep growing heads, like a frustrating reload bug and a problem with the red gas that closes in during every match syncing up with the game's server, which resulted in players being harmed when seemingly not in the gas or not taking damage when standing in it. 

If you've just started out the new game from Sharkmob, you can read up on our best Bloodhunt archetypes and classes guide for a helping hand.

Alyssa Mercante
Alyssa Mercante
Former Features Writer

Alyssa Mercante used to be a features writer at GamesRadar+ and is now a freelance writer and editor. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.