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Paradox Interactive intends to go public this year

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
The thing is THERES TONS of comsetic shit. Its like a proto-micro transactions.

It isnt just Crusader Kings. Most of there games have this DLC policy.

HELL theres DLC for there DLC. Also they ripped out the admidley awesome prologue campaign of King Arthur II and made it a pre order bonus for gods sake!!!

There is like a million cosmetic DLCs, but as I said, nobody cares. All of this is financing what is among the best, if not the best "quality DLC" (as in not cosmetic) output (and post launch support) in the whole industry.
 
Not sure this is a good idea.
Had the same feeling.
Its nice for the short run, but in the long run its not.
Their games have success because cost less to make and are for a small detected audience that can grow if its good and gets some attention (see city skylines).
But if the game is for a niche audience and it sells 50.000 because all the audience the game ever had it sold it to.
Shareholders always want more, more, more.
And I can see a future where paradox can't deliver that.
 
Not sure this is a smart move.

I don't necessarily think that their type of publishing will translate to shareholders and the need for everything to be constantly skyrocketing at every moment.
 
There is like a million cosmetic DLCs, but as I said, nobody cares. All of this is financing what is among the best, if not the best "quality DLC" (as in not cosmetic) output (and post launch support) in the whole industry.

Paradox's expansion packs were of better quality before they went their current route and decided to sell small piecemeal DLC packs. They give a lot of things in free updates, but their paid DLC is generally underwhelming.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Paradox's expansion packs were of better quality before they went their current route and decided to sell small piecemeal DLC packs.

While I definitely agree with that, even their current state is better than anything else I can think of in such a time span.

.. which doesnt say good things about the average post launch support of the industry and doesnt bode well for the future.
 
Aggressive growth, huh? Large fund shareholders are not going to be satisfied that Paradox is making very niche games unless those become a very small part of their revenue. I think either the IPO will not go over well, or Paradox is going to turn into a very different company than we know and mostly love.
 

jtb

Banned
I wish Paradox the publisher and Paradox the developer were two separate entities because I like both of them so much, but Paradox the developer is really one of a kind and totally irreplaceable in the gaming industry.
 

Anno

Member
With some big publishers already pushing their ways towards Paradox's service model I suspect it could already be massively profitable for them. More and more it seems like long-term support, rather than yearly releases, might really be the best way to make money with the right type of games.
 
...COULD turn out ok...but...wow, I didn't see this coming especially after the Vampire and such acquisition.

Best I can hope for is an improvement of relative fates like Illwinter making it onto Steam and out into the broader public eye while still running their race as they do.
 
I think people are making this out to be more than it really is.

Don't think it's really going to have that bad of an impact to the company itself but that's just my own personal opinion.
 

Lister

Banned
Oh crap no. One of the last few great pc publishers. This is going to be terrible. Expect the next crusader kings to be a cow clicker on ipad, and europa universalis: shit just got real, on rails third person shooter ps4 exclusive.

This breaks my heart.
 

epmode

Member
I think people are making this out to be more than it really is.

Don't think it's really going to have that bad of an impact to the company itself but that's just my own personal opinion.

The industry is littered with stories of companies that lost their way once they became accountable to investors. It's been happening for decades and it can easily happen here. I mean, Paradox's current business model is all about avoiding mass market genres and gameplay styles to satisfy a small but loyal niche. How well do you think that will go over at the annual shareholder meetings?
 

Urthor

Member
Counting Pillars of Eternity is fairly shaky, because they weren't the full publisher for it, PoE was funded by Obsidian for a large chunk.

Most of the profits in the business come from advancing money to developers against sales, then picking up absurd hits that rack up mega sales, not for distribution deals. If you look at Paradox's core it's a fairly staid company in the business sense. White Wolf Publishing isn't exactly an explosive growth business either. Crusader Kings 2 probably counts as a big hit for them, and a lot of that is off the Game of Thrones mod.

Oh crap no. One of the last few great pc publishers. This is going to be terrible. Expect the next crusader kings to be a cow clicker on ipad, and europa universalis: shit just got real, on rails third person shooter ps4 exclusive.

This breaks my heart.


They probably need to do something wild n wacky to improve earnings anyway, investors expect earnings growth, they'll be looking to make big changes since Paradox isn't exactly rolling in Fallout 4/Grand Theft Auto money
 

bathsalts

Member
http://digital.di.se/artikel/paradox-interactive-gar-till-borsen#

Swedish article, where Fredrik Wester is saying they they're targeting "aggresive growth", more resources for console games, and to seriously enter mobile gaming.

Sounds good, right?

drive-ryan-gosling-in-una-delle-scene-finali-del-film-231000.jpg
 

Dryk

Member
I think people are making this out to be more than it really is.

Don't think it's really going to have that bad of an impact to the company itself but that's just my own personal opinion.
I've lost count of how many times I've heard this sentiment. It's usually misguided.

Forces will be exerted on the company that weren't before, the interests that fans have in the company are going to have competing interests drowning them out. Also remember that once done this can never be undone if it goes bad.
 

Joco

Member
Somewhat ot but I'm really hoping CD Projekt Red doesn't go public. Going public seems to ruin the quality of gaming companies.

Worried for Paradox fans though.
 

frontovik

Banned
Somewhat ot but I'm really hoping CD Projekt Red doesn't go public. Going public seems to ruin the quality of gaming companies.

Worried for Paradox fans though.

It's my understanding that CDPR is already a public company though, and it's still doing its best to take care of its fans by following "ethical business practices".

With regards to Paradox, I loved their work on Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, and am eagerly looking forward to Hearts of Iron IV. I get the impression they got some heat for the way they handled DLCs for CK/EU though, and I personally thought it was irritating as well.

Perhaps their DLC practice will get worse by going public? I'm not quite sure what to think about this.
 

Tenebrous

Member
Already feel like I've kinda lost Blizzard, and now Paradox? It's a sad day...

Yeah, the take away here. Is that gamers really need to be the ones to invest.

That's actually interesting... I can see Paradox doing well. As someone who's never invested before, how easy is it to do so?
 
Huh, I don't know how to feel about this.

I'm not going to jump to a worst-case scenario overreaction just yet, but I do hope this doesn't affect any of their development practices especially considering they're generally known for their fairly niche grand strategies.
 
They had a mobile game survey recently, it seems like they're planning on at minimum companion apps for the games, and possibly pocket versions of EU4 etc that can share save games with the PC. I mean I assume they're contemplating it, since they directly asked how important that was to me.
 

bjaelke

Member
They had a mobile game survey recently, it seems like they're planning on at minimum companion apps for the games, and possibly pocket versions of EU4 etc that can share save games with the PC. I mean I assume they're contemplating it, since they directly asked how important that was to me.
I gave them a thumb up. Sorry.
 
They had a mobile game survey recently, it seems like they're planning on at minimum companion apps for the games, and possibly pocket versions of EU4 etc that can share save games with the PC. I mean I assume they're contemplating it, since they directly asked how important that was to me.

They've been talking about getting into mobile for several years now, they just couldn't decide on a strategy of how to do it.
 
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