Ooh, the TotallyNotEU5 game finally gets a release date? :)
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
28 points (100.0% liked)
Paradox Games
1349 readers
1 users here now
A general community for everything by Paradox Interactive.
Rules:
1. Don't be an asshole.
2. Keep posts on-topic. ie. Posts have to be either about the company itself or games made/ published by Paradox.
3. No NSFW content.
4. No spamming.
5. No advertising.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Looks like it ๐ I am really looking forward to it, but I wonder of they'll call it something else.
"A New Era" sounds like something different, but Tinto is the EU4 company..
Really hope they've done a good job with it. I would love to play it day 1, but after Vic3, I'm gonna wait and look at reviews.
If it makes you feel any better, in the dev diaries they've talked about learned lessons from Vic 3, Imperator Rome, and EU4. But yeah, waiting is always the wise move.
13:00 UTC
Gather round, map painting addicts!
Your new and improved quarterly/monthly DLC payment plan is almost ready!
I don't really have a problem with the business model, it seems like a decent way to build complex games over the years.
The Hoi4 'Ultimate Pack' is currently about 50% off on steam... and costs about $90.
Were it not on sale, it would be almost $170.
... Paradox reported a 57% profit margin in Q4 2024.
The whole year of 2024, they reported a profit margin of about 34%.
https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/investors/financial-reports/year-end-report-january-december-2024
They could knock a quarter (25%) off of all their game/dlc base prices and still be quite profitable.
... And Hoi4 AI ... just recently, finally, 10 years later, got an actual overhaul to its actual strategic/tactical warfighting AI, that makes it almost as competent as an average player.
I dunno about you, but for me, every paradox game is ... you climb a vertical wall of understanding how all those complex systems interface with each other, and then after you get over the top of that wall, there is basically no challenege whatsoever beyond the pure tedium of micromanaging everything... because the AI fundamentally cannot strategize better than a human that actually understands the game it is playing.
Sure, but I don't really think you need all dlc to enjoy the games. I see them as pretty optional.
I don't know about the quality of the AI, I tend to play them as sandboxes with my own little goals along the way. Like, colonizing with the Knights, recreating the baltic empire with Denmark, or... Whatever. I still find that challenging after 20 years playing their games.
I mean, if you enjoy the games, that's great!
Personally, I find them to be... as I said, boring, after you fully climb that wall of groking all the systems... not worth the price imo.
Also... its a bit if having your cake and eating it too, to originally say that consistent dlc releases are a good funding model, and then also say 'well they are optional'.
Like, yes, you are strictly correct... but the whole idea of the business model doesn't work if you don't have a large number of people regularly buying the dlc...
It would be nice to see a more thorough breakdown of Paradox's user and revenue numbers to see how dependant their cashflow is on 'buy all dlc' types, who would be called whales if it was a gacha game.
There are lots of games where I don't like the game or the business model, and I don't buy those games ๐
Now, don't take this the wrong way, but what is it about paradox that makes people annoyed enough to not just... steer clear of the games, but comment about DLC policy for decades after a game has been released?
I'm not sure I get it. If I don't like something and or don't think the business model is ethical I just don't buy the games, I don't hang out on forums or subreddit or communities for the game and complain about it.
If you're referring to me, what makes me comment as I did?
Post popped up on my feed, I felt like commenting.
I use a mobile app, and I'm on an instance that's federated with basically everyone, so I see all kinds of different things
Uh then theres the whole, I personally find Paradox games to not actually be challenging once you grok the systems thing...
Oh and I also have a degree in Econ, and am interested in the entire market strategy of Paradox as a company, as well as being am avid strategy gamer and thus interested in the products themselves.
Like.... people are worried about GTA6 being $120 on launch.
... Paradox games, and FlightSims have been pushing hugely expensive game+DLC sets for a while now, and you could argue that the fact that gamers don't revolt against that, when they're a solid, dedicated fandom... well that's ammo in Rockstar's board room meetings when they argue that they too have a similarly locked in fanbase, who will ultimately accept a new pricing paradigm.
I'm not necessarily referring to you, it's a phenomenon which I see on all platforms where there's a paradox community.
People used to share strategies, mod stuff, and generally talk about the games, but for the past 10 years the community has become more and more entitled and toxic, with every damn thread devolving into discussions about DLC policy.
Look, I get that many people don't like it. But how about just not buying the game then? I used to buy Pro Cycling Manager every year because, well, it's the only cycling game in town. But I got sick of them never improving anything and so I dropped the game, stopped going to their forums and communities, and spent my money on other stuff.
But it seems like half the people who hang around paradox communities are there to complain about the business model. I just sometimes wish people would give it a rest and find other games where they don't hate the business model, and leave those of us who are ok with it alone instead of drowning out all the fun and community with negative shit.
Didn't they already do a Rome EU game?
This is not a Rome game. It is suspiciously similar to EU4 if you look at all the pre-announcement dev diaries they have done.
So, 99% of people assume it is going to be EU5.
Many years ago, yes, it wasn't very good. And then they did a remake which also didn't do well and has been dropped.
it wasn't very good
Was it ? It's been a while so I have forgotten a lot about the situation, but my vague recollection is that Imperator had potential (good mechanics) but just wasn't allowed to reach it for some reason (they stopped giving it content).
Well, partially. It had pops and so on, and could have been a good game with a revamp, in fact v 2.0 was a lot of fun, but then they dropped support for it because no one was playing it. Makes sense but still a shame.