Makes sense, but they do it right after breaking one of their flagship titles. It’s first time since thier breakthrough hit CK2 when they abandon a game without making a sequel (let’s all agree that March of the Eagles was prequel to EU4).
But they spun that well, I expected more outrage from the combination of messages “we now break our games” and “we now abandon our games”.
Paradox has a long history of abandoning games. From PDS, there’s Crusader Kings 1, Europa Universalis Rome (though both got at least one expansion) and Sengoku. And arguably many third party games like Sword of the Stars 2, Impire, Lead and Gold, Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943, East India Company, Fort Zombie, Leviathan: Warships, and even Tyranny.
None of those names are familiar to 95% of the modern Paradox fans who came after CK2. Most of those were also published by Paradox, not developed. And Tyranny got an expansion and some other additions which is fine for a single-player RPG.
Tyranny got one DLC and a “mini expansion” priced as an expansion (just look at the Steam reviews for Bastard’s Wound) and if I’m not wrong the original plans were for more content, but Paradox killed those.
And yeah, most of those games were published by Paradox (which is why I said “third party games”), but they were abandoned by Paradox the publisher. Technically, Paradox also publishes the games made by the Paradox Development Studios, so it’s always the publisher who abandons the games. ;)
Anyway, you know what I mean. A lot of people bought I:R expecting years of support and expansions. And the sales were fine. I wonder if the next game from PDX DevStudio will enjoy the same level of fan trust and same good sales on release.
I actually thought there was a good chance of Imperator: Rome suffering the same fate of EU: Rome and Sengoku, and being abandoned. Which happened, but I loved EU: Rome and Sengoku, so I gave the game a try, fully expecting something like this to happen, but hoping it would be supported for longer. It wasn’t.
Initial sales, but probably not for any of the DLC. Imperator’s player count even after 2.0 has been less than Victoria 2. Given that, plugging away at the game for two years is more than I would expect from most publishers.
You have a good point though on how this might impact fan trust. For good or for bad, Paradox keeps plugging away at games and there’s an understanding that the initial release is going to be the foundation and things will continue to be added and worked on.
Anecdotally, some of that might be a byproduct of the quality of their releases though. I am interested in buying I:R after the 2.0 update to check it out, sounds like it became more my kind of game, but putting a little more QA into updates might help. Since the verdict was to give it a few patches for the bugs and such to get smoothed out, and there’s a billion and one other games I also want to try out, I haven’t bought I:R yet post-2.0 update.
Paradox games are so massive i generally can’t play more than one at a time, and at this point in my life i’m kind of aging out of them anyway, they demand too much time to invest in them. I have been firing up and playing a couple of in-game decades worth of Stellaris (console edition) and have been having a fun time… even though everything is different it’s been so long since the 1.8v or the last time i played that it’s not quite as jarring. I was a big fan of EU Rome - i still listen to its soundtrack - but i just couldn’t invest the time to play Imperator, and that hurts me. It’s really just too many new systems to learn. Maybe now that it’s stabilized a bit i can pick it up eventually. Actually i’d like to see it pop up on console GamePass, Xbox doesn’t really have a historic strategy game other than the vastly overpriced Civ VI.
I actually kind of want a remastered version of Warlock 2. That’s a pretty nice B grade game with a lot of interesting if not perfectly balanced mechanics that most importantly plays very fast, like 20x faster per turn than a Total War or even AoW or Civ game. Those unit responses and sound effects though, yikes, pure 90s low budget.
Warlock 2 was great.
I wonder how many people had purchased like me, but hadn’t really dove in yet waiting on updates after the rocky release.
I’m on the list
I’m kind of okay with support for Imperator being put on ice at this stage. This will allow me to dig in and really learn the game without the threat of another massive pass that reimagines major systems.
Not sure what the mod scene for Imperator is (might be small due to the weaker popularity of the game), but that might provide some more content/fixes.
In a way, this at least has the potential to really allow modders to run wild. It’s a finished product now, so no more having to devote a ton of time to getting the mod to work with each major update. Of course, with its small playerbase modders might be more interested in working with one of the other titles.
I will say this: from a technical POV, no other Paradox game can match Imperator. Not even CK3 which released later (I believe it had a much longer development cycle and started earlier). The map in Imperator remains the best as well. Visually, CK3 is a step back. Not just the graphics, but seeing giant metropolises grow and sprawl on the map is pretty cool. Plus in Imperator you can build roads! Who doesn’t like building awesome road networks? Oh. Maybe it’s just a me thing, but I love it. :)
I believe Imperator has a “Jomini” layer that was supposed to make life easier for modders, not sure if that is in CK3 as well or if that ended up being a big deal or not.
As much as I was looking forward to further development, that’s a good point about how a fixed build could lead to more modding. If the game is built to allow easy modding, it’ll be interesting to see what sorts of things get done.
I’m also fine with them moving on to other games. After its initial release, I never expected they’d devote the time and resources to transform the game into its current state.
Not Creative Assembly apparently, no siree. Last time I remember being able to invest in significant road or rail infrastructure is Shogun 2/Fall of the Samurai. Which felt more than a little bit criminal in Rome 2 given the stereotype about Romans and building roads. That game’s system for improving roads is still a mystery to me, compared to the old simplicity of just directly investing in better roads.
There’s something rather satisfying about constructing a major road or rail network. Both in terms of watching the map change to represent your upgrades and the tangible benefits often associated with it. So, I really ought to remember to pick up I:R next time it is on sale on GOG so I can satisfying my infrastructuralist desires.
Probably one reason I’ve been really enjoying the Rome remaster, since everything is so visibly tangible. Whether that be building farms, mines, roads and so on. Love watching road and port upgrades boost the number of tiny trade ships and caravans moving about the map.
I think CA went on making their games more detailed and customizeable. And their province system doesn’t mesh well woth infrastructure development. In Shogun 2 Fall of the Sakura railroads were predefined and didn’ necessarily went where you wanted them to go. I:R has a very high province density so they can allow you to build a road between any to territories or whatever they’re called this month.
<lifts hand>
Yep, same here, bought it on GOG on sale, haven’t fired it up. Decided instead to play Rome Remastered when that kinda dropped in out of the blue.
You can (actually have to) build roads and rails and high speed rails in Shadow Empire.
Actually Shadow Empire (and At the Gates) are example of why I like Paradox. Very ambitious and creative games, but they’re a one man shop (with I guess outsource art, not sure). I think they show no matter how talented the one developer is they just don’t have the resources to produce a finished deep strategy game in a reasonable time period. I know with the Paradox that game will evolve over a period of years, and they have the resource to deliver a completed product even if it is flawed.