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Paradox Interactive cancels several unannounced projects to ''focus resources and expertise on its proven game niches''

Uzupedro

Uzupedro

Banned
May 16, 2020
12,234
Rio de Janeiro
Press release:
https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...ame-development-pipeline-writes-down-135-msek
Paradox Interactive AB (publ) has today decided to discontinue the development of several unannounced games. In connection with the cancellation, the company has written down the value of the projects which will impact the Q3 2021 profit before tax with -135 MSEK($15M). The cancellation is a consequence of the company's strategy to focus resources and expertise on its proven game niches and projects that better meet the company's requirements on returns and risk.

In the past year, Paradox Interactive has continued to focus its game development and business activities on the company's core areas. Including these cancellations Paradox Interactive has since the third quarter of 2020 cancelled the development of unannounced projects that amounts to 265 MSEK($30M) in write-offs.
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"Paradox Interactive was born and raised in strategy- and management games. It is where we have our heart and our mind and we are passionate about making games that our players can enjoy over a long period of time. Therefore we have sharpened our pipeline further to ensure that the projects with the highest potential have the resources necessary for the best possible development. We now have a promising game pipeline and I look forward to sharing these games with our players over the next few years." says CEO Fredrik Wester.

Paradox Interactive now has fifteen new games in development, some are new titles and some are sequels on existing franchises. Four of these games have been announced; the much demanded grand strategy game Victoria 3, Crusader Kings 3 for consoles, the classic Shadowrun Trilogy for console and Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Additionally, a number of DLCs are in development, such as Royal Court for Crusader King 3.
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Coolluck

Coolluck

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,399
I hope one of the cancelled games wasn't something I would have loved but I'm glad they've reorganized to not be stretched too thin.
 
Loudninja

Loudninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,188
Sounds like they where doing too much at one time, so yeah it for the best. They still have fifteen games in development.
 
myth

myth

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Jul 15, 2021
283
If they were working on too many projects that would explain the many fuckups they've done in recent times
 
jph139

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,366
Goddamn, that's a lot of money down the train. Can see why the former CEO was ousted, I assume a lot of the projects they're canceling were under her purview.

Outside of Crusader Kings 3 I don't think Paradox has had a good, solid, uncontroversial game (or even DLC) launch in years, so I get the logic on reeling things back in. Hopefully this is part of a larger overhaul, including dealing with the hostile workforce allegations.
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,161
I agree with their new strategy. Don't try to do too much. Focus on what we want from you and keep improving your core strategy games.
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
17,972
HareBrained was supposed to be working on 2 un-announced new IPs.

I wonder if any of them got axed.
 

slothrop

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Aug 28, 2019
3,875
USA
Their DLC model is the one that most frustrates me in the industry oddly.

It's in this perfect sweet spot where it's not so exploitative I just ignore it out of hand (e.g. no loot boxes, microtransactions, etc)

But it is SOO confusing as a consumer. Exactly which combo of 15 small DLCs do I want? Is it even possible to design a game conceptually that is balanced for any possible combo of these DLC. Why do they all feel kind of negligible on their own individually but then add so much content on sum? Etc etc.

It's cognitively overwhelming to me to the point I just don't play the games.
 
KingSnake

KingSnake

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,984
I wonder if this is linked with the CEO change. Sounds like the former CEO was more into expansions while the current (and the one before the last one) CEO is against that.
 
jph139

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,366
AuthenticM said:
bets on when they announce Europa 5?
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They established Paradox Tinto last year specifically for the EU brand, so I'd be shocked if it's not already in development.

Depends on when Victoria 3 is out, though. I'd bet 6-9 months after that release. So like, announced sometime 2022, released sometime 2023?
 
AtomicShroom

AtomicShroom

Tools & Automation
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
3,075
Seems to be a trend at many, many gaming companies at the moment. I'm seeing the same thing at multiple developers: Any project deemed even slightly "risky" or "experimental" is getting cancelled and people are getting reallocated to work on their big proven franchises.

The current economic climate makes them double-down on making sure their big franchises remain relevant and get as big as possible. See Activision having every single studio they own working on CoD.

This is not good and I can only assume it will get worse.
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,078
Mentalist said:
HareBrained was supposed to be working on 2 un-announced new IPs.

I wonder if any of them got axed.
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If they are Strategy games they would count as proven game niche.
Hell, I got a playtest request from Paradox about a strategy game so probably we get something from them soon. (somehow there is no NDA request on the entire email or page for it lol).
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
17,972
eonden said:
If they are Strategy games they would count as proven game niche.
Hell, I got a playtest request from Paradox about a strategy game so probably we get something from them soon.
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HareBrained is an RPG studio that they acquired (developers of the Shadowrun trilogy and BattleTech), soo...
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,078
Dennis8K said:
They better fucking not fuck up Victoria 3 and Bloodlines 2

Thems the big ones.
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Victoria 3 aint gonna be fucked. They got a great director on it...
Bloodlines 2? lol

Mentalist said:
HareBrained is an RPG studio that they acquired (developers of the Shadowrun trilogy and BattleTech), soo...
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They also did Battletech which was a great strategy style of RPG. Regardless, Paradox also published ShadowRun before the push to new genres, so they are likely to be safe, unless they went outside of the "PC RPG / Strategy" niche.
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,078
Regarding the news. Outside of the cancellation of projects (which always sucks), I am kinda happy with that. Paradox tried to branch out in a weird way that also let THQ Nordic grab some of the games Paradox would normally publish and ended up being huge succeses (like Coffee Stain "Satisfactory" or Iron Gate "Valheim" are "core niche" titles from studios in their own country they have connection with) while not really getting that many good successes with outside IP.
They also clearly showed lack of focus on some of their internal development (lookign at you EU4, Stellaris, and HoI3) which has shown eitehr bad content or lack of content in the last 2-3 years.
 
Z6E1Z9O

Z6E1Z9O

Chicken Chaser
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Oct 28, 2017
451
Cities skylines 2 is one of my most anticipated games ever at this point, and i really hope they deliver on it
 
Anno

Anno

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,950
Columbus, Ohio
Aangster said:
Well, how much is Paradox going to devote to getting its DLC and DLC-centric business model in a better place? The releases have been pretty mixed to woeful of late.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/about-leviathan.1473454/
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EU has been pretty bad. Not really sure about HOI, but the last couple of Stellaris expansions and the flavor pack for CK3 I thought were solid. The upcoming CK expansion looks good so far, too.

Hopefully this means all of their current GS teams get a boost the way that Stellaris did. CK might've already been there, though.
 
NewDust

NewDust

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Oct 25, 2017
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FreshSwami

FreshSwami

alt account
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
12
slothrop said:
Their DLC model is the one that most frustrates me in the industry oddly.

It's in this perfect sweet spot where it's not so exploitative I just ignore it out of hand (e.g. no loot boxes, microtransactions, etc)

But it is SOO confusing as a consumer. Exactly which combo of 15 small DLCs do I want? Is it even possible to design a game conceptually that is balanced for any possible combo of these DLC. Why do they all feel kind of negligible on their own individually but then add so much content on sum? Etc etc.

It's cognitively overwhelming to me to the point I just don't play the games.
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Agree that their dlc model is terrible, but I'm still a sucker for their games so I end up buying them. At least for eu4 it's gotten so bad they have a subscription service to just get all of the dlc instead of having to shell out $10-20 per dlc.
 
cyrribrae

cyrribrae

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Jan 21, 2019
12,723
Uzupedro said:
Press release:
https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...ame-development-pipeline-writes-down-135-msek
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They still have 15 AFTER several cancellations?? We knew this was coming from what the CEO was saying before (or did she get pushed out.. I can't remember). Clearly, there was a lot of pressure on them. Hmm.. on the other hand, if they're only writing down $15M, maybe these were fairly small projects or else very early in production?

If the 15 games include these:
"Crusader Kings 3 for consoles, the classic Shadowrun Trilogy for console and Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2"
then perhaps the remaining games aren't all big and shiny either. Heck, I'm almost a little surprised that VtM:B2 isn't one of the cancellations with all the drama going on there (or.. maybe it is?).
 
Classy Tomato

Classy Tomato

Member
Jun 2, 2019
2,514
I hope what Rod Humble's studio working on survives. I kinda want to see a competitor for The Sims (though I'm not looking forward to Paradox pumping hundreds of DLCs for the game).
 
Genesius

Genesius

Member
Nov 2, 2018
15,482
Mentalist said:
Paradox is actively licensing out WoD, at the very least, taking the Games Workshop approach. Might not see many games from them, but other devs and publishers (especially Nacon) are working with the IP.
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Bloodhunt looks great and I'm excited for it to hit PS5. But yeah you're right something about both Warhammer 40K and Vampire apparently makes it damn impossible to make a good non-niche game.
 
Double 0

Double 0

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Nov 5, 2017
7,430
So wait, Bloodlines somehow dodged the chopping block? They probably invested too much in it to stop.

I mean, I'm happy it's surviving and I hope it eventually gets released, but let's just say I wouldn't sacrifice any of HBS' games for it.
 
sangreal

sangreal

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,890
KingSnake said:
I wonder if this is linked with the CEO change. Sounds like the former CEO was more into expansions while the current (and the one before the last one) CEO is against that.
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Yeah, I remember a lot of commentary that this was the reason they changed CEO but it wasn't clear whether the outgoing or incoming CEO was the one who wanted to focus on their core market
 
ezekial45

ezekial45

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,742
I'm really curious to see what shape Bloodlines 2 is in now. The development for that has been chaotic, no doubt. I'm still a bit appalled by how they abruptly retooled the game and fired some of the creative staff.
 
Xater

Xater

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Oct 26, 2017
8,905
Germany
I honestly thought the cancellation of Bloodlines 2 would go along with this news. I am shocked it's still in development. We still don't know who took it over, right?

I think this might be better for Paradox. They didn't find mich success outside of their niche.
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
17,972
Genesius said:
Bloodhunt looks great and I'm excited for it to hit PS5. But yeah you're right something about both Warhammer 40K and Vampire apparently makes it damn impossible to make a good non-niche game.
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Games Workshop has been doing quite well. We`ve got excellent 4X, turn-based tactics, Diablo-style ARPGs, and decent FPS titles--- not to mention the juggernaut that is the Total Warhammer trilogy.

Really, the only thing missing is a "core" 3rd person action/adventure title... but none of the big devs/pubs would want to work on that kind of project on an IP they don't own. (with few exceptions, *cough* Marvel *cough* )

WoD has been mostly adventure/VN games, with the Werewolf game being a flop (though maybe that was due to Cyanide being bought out by Nacon mid-development? - originally, it was gonna be a Focus-published title). The Coteries & Shadows on NY games seem to have done ok though. If Bloodlines 2 ends up being a trainwreck when it's out though, that could be a problem for more WoD games.
 
Hella

Hella

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Oct 27, 2017
23,397
Gonna be wildly upset if it turns out Harebrained Schemes or Triumph Studios got hit by this.... though I don't see how they couldn't have.

Goddamnit Paradox.
 
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