Why would Paradox want to fund an expansion? This has been an enormous black eye, and the developers have shown they’re unable to make timelines or deliver a working product.
I’m not trying to be a hater here, but we’re well past the point where you can give the benefit of the doubt.
Seeing as the CEO of Paradox essentially said “It’s all my fault,” I’m pretty sure there’s at least some blame to be had on the side of Paradox. As for why they’d want to fund an expansion, they’ll do it if they think it will make enough money and that’s about it. Frankly, I doubt it would because the release issues have burned a lot of fans and scared off newcomers.
It’s their fault because they released a crappy game that they shouldn’t have released. The CEO apologized to their customers. If I’m working with a partner that screws a project up badly enough that the CEO has to apologize to the customers, I sure don’t want to hire that partner again.
Lorini
1846
But the devs didn’t release the game, Paradox released the game. You realize that, right?
Otagan
1847
Without more detailed knowledge of what went on behind closed doors at Paradox and Kerberos, I’m not inclined to heap too much blame on Paradox for doing what they did. Sure, in a perfect world, you don’t want to release a game until it’s perfect, but if (for example) Kerberos had completely failed and made a habit of missing a series of deadlines from Paradox, there comes a point where enough is enough.
Not saying it’s the greatest of business practices, but in that case I’d place the blame squarely at the feet of Kerberos for failing to live up to their end of the agreement. You can’t keep pouring money into a sinkhole with no tangible return forever.
KevinC
1848
Paradox is the one who released the game knowing full well what condition it was in. I’m not absolving Kerberos of anything but to pretend Paradox wasn’t culpable for this clusterfuck is silly. The only question is to what degree.
To address the question of why they would fund an expansion, it comes down to a decision on whether SOTS2 is a lost cause and a moneysink or if there’s potential that it could turn a profit with further investment. I certainly don’t have an answer to that but if the product were completely a lost cause with no hope of making money it makes me wonder why they’ve continued development for six months and where the money to do so is coming from.
Otagan
1849
I’ll agree they need a portion of the blame, but to deem that portion to be equal or greater than that allocated to Kerberos without knowing any of the details (which would be nice, but frankly not realistic for us to ever have) is a little unfair to them. I say this as someone who has never been completely satisfied with Paradox’s business practices regarding the release and subsequent support of their games (internally developed or not), with the notable recent exception of CK2.
Full agreement in principle with your statement, though.
My guess would be expansion-like DLC is about the closest you’ll see and even that’s a long way off being a possibility.
Kerberos can Kickstart it.
My belief is that the game will be finished up within a month, and within six we’ll either get news that Kerberos has folded up shop or that they’re working on a new project (such as a minor expansion). That might be the best indicator of where the lion’s share of the blame resides.
Lorini
1853
Paradox PUBLISHED the game. That means that they put it into distribution, do the marketing, and are in the end responsible for the state of the game. Yes we all knew the game was late, but in the end this is all on Paradox. Kerebos knew that the game wasn’t finished and one would assume Paradox did as well.
Saying it “is all on Paradox” is simplistic. They’re clearly both causally at fault. Why sit around and try to parse percentages? If either one of them had acted professionally and competently, this wouldn’t have happened. It took both of them dropping the ball to create the clusterfuck. Their relative positions in the supply and distribution chain doesn’t absolve either of them.
Kerebos fucked up.
Paradox fucked up.
Customers got fucked only because both of them fucked up.
Lorini
1855
But wait. Kerberos tells Paradox: Games not ready. Paradox says: We are going to release it anyway. Why is that Kerberos’s fault?
Giaddon
1856
New patch today! No notes yet, though.
Is this what it’s been for you guys these past months? This is kind of fun! What surprises await in this patch? Will stuff work? Will the screens transition quickly now? I can’t wait to find out!
Wheeee!
MikeJ
1857
Well, usually there’s the excitement over what got fixed, followed by the depression over how much remains to be fixed, followed by realization of a few annoying bugs that were added, to be fixed in the next hotfix in a day or two. Then realizing that, hey, the next patch isn’t very far away, maybe I should wait until then…
Giaddon
1858
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Lorini
1860
Mecron is digging up the changelog now he says.
KevinC
1861
They share blame for abysmal project management and having the game still 6+ months away from completion at release time.
Perhaps the “game’s not ready” part? The state of SOTSII, even at the delayed launch date, was clearly well, well beyond reasonable (but unforeseen) delays and polish issues.
The game clearly hadn’t even completed alpha, much less a reasonable beta. Hell, the game has still been in alpha (e.g., entire features and systems being introduced) for the last few months. If Kereboros can be viewed as being faultless, then perceptions need to change.
