Paradox, What Are You Doing?

Let me be very clear on this: I'm a huge fan of the grand strategy games that Paradox's internal studios are responsible for. Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, I cannot get enough of that shit. But Paradox is a business comprised of two halves. And the other--a publisher of other studios’ games--is currently fucking up everything they touch.

As successful as the company's internally-developed titles have been, the games Paradox have scouted, signed and pledged to release over the last few years have been a succession of rakes stepped upon rakes stepped upon rakes. Things weren't always this way! Paradox has been publishing other studios’ games for decades now, and over that time helped release everything from Mount & Blade to the Majesty series to Cities: Skylines. Good games!

Lately though, yikes, things are bad. And they're bad in increasingly explosive and embarrassing ways. Let's look back on some recent dramas:

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, in development since 2016, has redefined the term "development hell". The RPG hasn't just been completely retooled, it's moved studios altogether, and in 2023 took the unprecedented step of offering pre-order refunds for fans sick of waiting for the game to come out.

The Lamplighters League, a turn-based tactics game released in 2023, was publicly trashed by Paradox after release. Most of the staff of developer Harebrained (the same team behind the excellent Battletech) were laid off, before Paradox split with the studio altogether, citing "strategic and creative priorities".

Star Trek: Infinite was a 2023 space strategy game based on Paradox's own excellent Stellaris. It ended up with pretty average reviews, most of them centred on the game's litany of launch bugs and glitches.

Millennia, a 4X strategy game, was released earlier this year and absolutely stank. It was in no way fit for release. But Paradox shuffled it out there anyway.

And finally, there's Cities: Skylines II, the reason I'm writing this blog today. The first game is one of the company's biggest ever publishing hits! Yet the 2023 sequel, which should have been a tap-in for Paradox, has been a catastrophe. The game was essentially released unfinished and suffered from a litany of performance woes; I encountered one so bad last year that it hard-crashed my PC to the bios screen, something that had never happened to me before in my life.

Things somehow got even worse last week when the premium DLC release Beach Properties arrived in such a busted state that developers Colossal Order had to pull it, refund everyone who had bought it, announce that it'll be re-released as free DLC, then make one of the most lengthy development apologies I have ever seen:

We see and understand the disappointment many of you have expressed after the release of Cities: Skylines II and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your patience and support, and you’ve shown those. In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry. When we’ve made statements like this one before, it’s included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven’t happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better.

The very first thing we’re doing is to compensate those who purchased Beach Properties. We will change the pack to be a free addition to the game, refund it to the extent possible, and provide additional content within the Ultimate Edition. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to offer refunds for Ultimate Edition buyers. This is due to the distribution of the Ultimate Edition across digital and physical storefronts, which create significant complexities for executing a partial refund. We realize that this is far from ideal, especially given the dedication those who have stayed with us since launch have shown. We are committed to repaying that loyalty, and therefore, we will compensate Ultimate Edition holders by adding 3 Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations which, together, sum up to a value of USD 39.99. This solution hopefully ensures that you, regardless of purchase method, feel you receive fair compensation.

Looking ahead, we also want to make immediate and meaningful changes in the way we approach the game’s development and our communication with you. Firstly, this means a complete focus on improving the base game and modding tools, and secondly, we want to better involve you, the community, as we choose our priorities going forward. We will focus on additional free patches and game updates in the coming months before Colossal Order spends time on new paid content, resulting in a move of the Bridges and Ports Expansion to 2025. In addition, the aforementioned Creator Packs are being produced independently, and will not take any focus away from the work on improving the game. To make sure we focus on the right things, we’re putting together an advisory meeting, where a small group of player representatives, together with Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, will discuss the development plan for this year. The people in this group are chosen for the size of their following within the community to represent as many people as possible. The teams from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will provide them with full transparency and answer any questions and critiques voiced. Our hope is that together with you, our community, we can make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes we have made in the past and bring this game into a bright future.

These are all different games made by different studios, but most of them have two things in common. The first is that Paradox is responsible for funding, promoting and releasing these games. Sure, development and support for each game is the responsibility of each individual studio, but as publisher with the final say on when these games are released and how they're shaping up, Paradox is where the buck stops!

The second is that the last few releases--criticised heavily for being unfinished, Skylines II especially--didn't need to release when they did. Millennia was a 4X strategy game, Skylines II a city-builder, Infinite a Star Trek tie-in, all niche genres that aren't tied to any kind of release tentpole. They weren't movie adaptations or sports games or Call of Duty. These games should have been given as much time in the oven as they needed to be ready for release.

Instead they were shunted onto the market before they were ready and were duly punished for it. Why? I don't know--this isn't some big expose, sorry--but I would like to point out that for all of Paradox's past publishing success, including 2015's Cities: Skylines, the company went public in 2016, and that all these disastrous releases have come after that decision, a trend that has only accelerated over the past couple of years. So while there shouldn't have been a reason to rush a city-builder out the door (especially when the original game was still releasing expansions and doing well), when you have shareholders to keep happy every time you report some fiscals, maybe there suddenly is!

Anyway, whatever the reason--I'm just speculating here!--Paradox, please, you gotta stop. Take some time with these games, let the studios iron out some kinks, flesh out some design ideas, make sure everything is ready to go before taking people's money. I get that short-term profits are one thing, but they're never as important as your long-term reputation.