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Paradox Interactive acquires Triumph Studios (Age of Wonders, Overlord)

salromano

Member
PR below. There will be a live stream about the acquisition later today.

Paradox Interactive acquires Triumph Studios

World-renowned strategy game developer, creators of Age of Wonders-series, joins Paradox Interactive.

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STOCKHOLM — June 30, 2017 — Paradox Interactive is pleased to announce it has acquired Triumph Studios, the creators of the critically-acclaimed Age of Wonders and Overlord-series.

Founded in 1997 by Lennart Sas and Arno van Wingerden, both of who remain with the company today, Triumph Studios is known as one of the top-tier strategy games developers worldwide. The Age of Wonders-series has sold in excess of one million copies to date.

Following the acquisition, the current team and management will all remain with Triumph Studios. All ongoing projects will remain in development, and will be published by Paradox Interactive.

“Triumph Studios is a developer of our own heart. They are world-leading within their niche and have built a large and dedicated community over the years, counting quite a few Paradox employees among their hardcore fans. We have great faith in Lennart, Arno and the Triumph team, and our main focus now is to ensure that they can continue to create their magic under new ownership,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO at Paradox Interactive.

“We have been approached by others before with an interest to acquire us, but this is not merely a business transaction for us. This is a liaison with a partner that can help us grow sustainably by ensuring the stability and continuity needed for us to do more of what we do best - develop some of the best turn-based strategy games on the market today. Paradox is a good match for us both culturally and games-wise. They get it. It’s as simple as that, and we are extremely excited about the acquisition,” said Lennart Sas, CEO and co-founder of Triumph Studios.

Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester and Triumph CEO Lennart Sas will host a live stream about the acquisition on Friday 30 June at 4PM CEST. Tune in at twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive.
 

rainz

Member
If this means more money behind a possible AOW4 and the Triumph guys get to continue to do their magic then I'm all for it! Seems like a nice fit.
 
Paradox keeps buying smaller studios that are producing successful niche titles. On one hand, I like that they are pursuing these markets and publishing for them, on the other hand I'm not sure I like this trend of PDX potentially monopolizing niche genres.
 

Memory

Member
Not sure how I feel about this, AOW3 is my game of the generation. The team have been working on another project which isn't far from a reveal. I wouldn't want anyone coming in and messing up the formula or team chemistry.

I love Paradox but I don't like their dlc practices. Cautiously optimistic, at least AOW4 will have more marketing power and development money.
 

Kolx

Member
Csn't wait for them to push half-baked games out to the market and then try to actually complete them only to drop them once the next game in the series comes along.
 
Csn't wait for them to push half-baked games out to the market and then try to actually complete them only to drop them once the next game in the series comes along.

Yup. I've avoided EU4, Stellaris and HoI4 for this reason, along with their increasingly ridiculous DLC practices. Cities: Skylines was a nice surprise, but in retrospect it just seems to be yet another barebones DLC vehicle.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Studios bought out by Paradox haven't had a great track record up to this point. Not sure how I feel about this.
 
Is it their DLC policy that's crappy, or their DLC pricing policy that's crappy?

They fucked up by raising prices internationally but they have now reversed that policy.

The dlc policy is fine, I would argue one of the most consumer friendly in the biz. They support the games with free updates for years. If anything they should be axing support sooner to focus on sequels.
 

Memory

Member
Yup. I've avoided EU4, Stellaris and HoI4 for this reason, along with their increasingly ridiculous DLC practices. Cities: Skylines was a nice surprise, but in retrospect it just seems to be yet another barebones DLC vehicle.

To be fair Stellaris doesn't fit that mold. There is one expansion (Utopia) which came a full year after release.
The cosmetic Plantiods dlc was a failed experiment early on, the modding community has ensured we won't what any more like that as it's useless and there are better available for free.
The Leviathan dlc is also useless and another failed experiment which I doubt we will see move of again thanks to the modding tools.
 

deleted

Member
Paradox is growing quite big these days.

Hopefully they don't overestimate themselves. Very excited for some of their new games!
But I just hope that going going public isn't going to kill the goodwill they build up little by little - Upping the prices on old games was a strange thing to do.
 

dude

dude
They fucked up by raising prices internationally but they have now reversed that policy.

The dlc policy is fine, I would argue one of the most consumer friendly in the biz. They support the games with free updates for years. If anything they should be axing support sooner to focus on sequels.
100% agree with this. I'll never get the hate for Paradox's dlc model. Games get supported for years and years and you can just buy the ones that seem cool to you.
Personally, the only improvement I'd want to see is bundling some of the older expansions with the base games. That'll make getting into the games quite easier and would reduce the bed for expansion guides.
 

Wanace

Member
100% agree with this. I'll never get the hate for Paradox's dlc model. Games get supported for years and years and you can just buy the ones that seem cool to you.
Personally, the only improvement I'd want to see is bundling some of the older expansions with the base games. That'll make getting into the games quite easier and would reduce the bed for expansion guides.

I love Paradox and have bought almost every piece of DLC for EU4 and CK2 (aside from cosmetic stuff). I think they definitely need to bundle DLC with the base game after a certain point, even if it means a trivial price hike for the base game. For instance, EU4 is missing a lot of stuff that makes the game playable which only appeared in DLC.

I don't get the complaining, EU4 has been out for nearly 4 years and is still getting updates and DLC which makes it even more interesting and entertaining. Compare that to a game like, say, Skyrim, which is getting its umpteenth release on new consoles (and even new VERSIONS, like VR, which cost money!) after SIX YEARS with no hint of a sequel on the horizon.
 
They fucked up by raising prices internationally but they have now reversed that policy.

The dlc policy is fine, I would argue one of the most consumer friendly in the biz. They support the games with free updates for years. If anything they should be axing support sooner to focus on sequels.


Pretty much this, they are still providing free updates to CK2 and we are what 4-5 years out?
 
Pretty much this, they are still providing free updates to CK2 and we are what 4-5 years out?

5 years and 4 months.

The latest CK2 expansion was a bit wonky but the one before that was really well loved. Despite that, I think they should have stopped making expansions with Horse Lords.

More detailed councils and council interactions, epidemics / illnesses and secret societies + inventories for relics and such would have made for a great hook to pull people into CK3 if they were headline features of the game. CK2 with all expansions is going to be a tough act to follow. To be frank I don't see how they could follow it without causing a major backlash - the HoI3 -> HoI4 jump was already widely complained about because some features that got added with expansion packs in 3 were either shallower or not present in base HoI4. Imagine what happens when you follow up a pseudo-games as a service thing like CK3 with a clean break that can't possibly incorporate half the features of the previous, fully patched and expanded game.
 
5 years and 4 months.

The latest CK2 expansion was a bit wonky but the one before that was really well loved. Despite that, I think they should have stopped making expansions with Horse Lords.

More detailed councils and council interactions, epidemics / illnesses and secret societies + inventories for relics and such would have made for a great hook to pull people into CK3 if they were headline features of the game. CK2 with all expansions is going to be a tough act to follow. To be frank I don't see how they could follow it without causing a major backlash - the HoI3 -> HoI4 jump was already widely complained about because some features that got added with expansion packs in 3 were either shallower or not present in base HoI4. Imagine what happens when you follow up a pseudo-games as a service thing like CK3 with a clean break that can't possibly incorporate half the features of the previous, fully patched and expanded game.
Thankfully people are very understanding and understand the difference between a new game and a game with 5 years of post-release support? Right?

Right?
 

tmarg

Member
Thankfully people are very understanding and understand the difference between a new game and a game with 5 years of post-release support? Right?

Right?

If the older product provides a better experience at a lower price, it's not really consumers' responsibility to worry about their development cycle.

Not that anyone should throw a tantrum online over it, and unfortunately I'm sure some people would.
 

Xiao Hu

Member
They fucked up by raising prices internationally but they have now reversed that policy.

The dlc policy is fine, I would argue one of the most consumer friendly in the biz. They support the games with free updates for years. If anything they should be axing support sooner to focus on sequels.

I disagree on the dlc part, they're way too overpriced for what they offer. I would prefer them to add more historical campaigns alongside the mechanical tweaks they introduce now and then.

But you're right on the support part. For example I think CK 2 needs to die soon. The game is technically really archaic and even with dlcs Vanilla CK 2 is inferior to mods like CK2 Plus and HIP, especially when it comes to religions, mechanics and the map being accurate.

Btt: Shame the Overlord-IP didn't go with Triumph. I really love both games ❤
 
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