Just wait until Paradox spins this move as “we support Hong Kong”… ;)
My prediction would be CK3. If it’s not CK3, maybe a fantasy GSG? I’m basing this mostly off their teaser vid where the producer is standing in front of a suit of armor and has a sword. I guess that could be a red herring, though.
“Majesty: World of Warlock”. ;)
I insist on it being fantasy CK2, maybe even licensed Game of Thrones game.
I doubt they’d do cold war as it would prevent China distribution.
HOI4 is blocked in China.
This is definitely something I could see present-day Paradox drooling over.
I think it will be a Paradox Game Studios GSG, where you manage franchises.
And the endgame is trying to figure which game design allows for the maximum possible number of DLC. ;)
My personal bet is anything other than a sequel to EU4 or CK2. Making sequels to those games is trouble and I don’t think they know what to do with that.
CK2 would be a great starting point for a Wolf of Wall Street style business sim.
I hope it’s not CK3. CK2 is my favorite Paradox game, and I don’t think it needs competition from a sequel. I’d be interested in seeing CK2’s mechanics adapted to a new period or timescale, though.
It won’t happen anytime soon, but the one game I wish they’d do a sequel for is Stellaris. It was their first stab at a 4X hybrid as well as a game not rooted in history, so it’s not surprising to me that it’s been harder for them to nail down the design. I’d love to see them take the lessons learned and start from the ground up but it won’t happen anytime soon with how prominent the game is and how well it’s doing.
Yeah I agree. Similar to the way the had to iterate on EU and CK until they nailed the design.
Okay, just for fun lets say the new game is CK3. Some obvious reasons to do it would be getting it built in the latest version of the engine. Imperator’s map is gorgeous, the scripting is a lot more powerful and easier to use, etc. So there’s reasons there, but that’s not enough.
Paradox has said that they’ll keep expanding existing games until they run out of things they want to do or when they want to take things in a new direction. If they’re using a different design for CK3, what does that look like? An example of this happening was EU3->EU4. Monarch Power became a core part of the design that everything else kind of hung off of. How might CK2->CK3 evolve, I wonder?
The base Crusader Kings 2 game is now free.
But there’s already an incredible GoT mod for CK2. Unless the mod spun a licensing agreement and they brought some of the modders on to make it the real deal. I think a different fantasy IP is more likely, or going full-Stellaris and hitting on a make-your-own fantasy universe.
Another possibility is a China-focused historical game, or even Sengoku 2.
Shams implied they had at least looked into this on one of the podcast episodes. I think it would be a great idea.
I’d like to see the paradox treatment of a more civ like game. Starting small, going from ancient to modern, exploring an unknown world. That may be more in their wheelhouse than sci-fi and much more interesting to me personally.
This is my hope also - a PDX take on starting from scratch human history a la Civilization.
Gosh I would hate that, I went from 4x strategy games to Paradox GSGs and have not looked back since. Asymmetrical starts are just much more interesting and lead to much more lasting gameplay (in my view).