Halloween Sale I:R popularity rank and what can tell to PDS

[IsaacCAT]

It may change during the sale, but if you search I:R while sorting by popularity you will find out that the main game is number 8 of all games and their DLCs are among the most popular DLCs for all its games. Note that PDS never released a paid expansion.

On the other hand, we see a game like Victoria II getting the 6th position and their expansions being among the most popular. Most probable because the incoming Vic 3.

That said, PDS should note that Imperator: Rome remains popular and despite the low numbers of players there is an opportunity for a paid expansion. Because the hype for new content (like Vic3) and continous development Is what players are waiting to play and they will support the effort. (EDITED).


DLC & Expansions ranking in the top spot (4 first pages)

EXPANSIONS:

1. EU IV (8)
2. CITIES SKYLINES (7)
3. HOI IV (5)
4. STELLARIS (4)
5. VICTORIA II (2)

DLC:

1. CITIES SKYLINES (9)
2. STELLARIS (8)
3. EU IV (4)
4. IMPERATOR: ROME (3)
5. HOI IV (3)

MOST POPULAR GAMES:

1. CK III
2. Cities Skylines
3. HOI IV
4. STELLARIS
5. EUROPA UNIVERSALIS IV
6. VICTORIA II
7. SURVIVING MARS
8. IMPERATOR: ROME
9. EMPIRE OF SIN
10. MAGICKA 2
11. PRISON ARCHITECT
12. HOI III
13. BATTLETECH
14. DARKEST HOUR
15. MAGICKA
16. PILLARS OF ETERNITY
17. CITIES 2 IN MOTION
18. VICTORIA
19. MARCH OF THE EAGLES
20. STEEL DIVISION
21. ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY
22. EUROPA UNIVERSALIS III
23. HEARTS OF IRON II
24. SENGOKU
25. AGE OF WONDERS III
26. SHADOWRUN HONG KONG
27. EU ROME GOLD
28. TYRANNY
29. KNIGHTS OF PEN AND PAPER II
30. MAJESTY 2 COLLECTION
31. AGE OF WONDERS
32. CITIES IN MOTION
33. SHADOWRUN DRAGONFALL
34. SHADOWRUN RETURN
35. WARLOCK II THE EXILED
36. ANCIENT SPACE
37. CRUSADERS KINGS

 

[Numahr]

Well, is not #8 position a bit like "best of the abandonware" though?

Like, in a theoretical scenario where they would allocate development resources to games by decreasing order of popularity, getting development attention at #8 rank would require Paradox to have resources for 8 simultaneous developments. So this rank looks a bit like a confirmation of why they have unplugged life support to I:R...

 

[Aybara978NE]

I finally got around to really trying out I:R in the past few weeks while I wait for all the Paradox DLC on the horizon. I never played before Marius, so I don’t understand all the hate. The game is seriously fun.

I really hope more people give this game another chance and that Paradox restarts development.

 

[Yuanshu]

Well, is not #8 position a bit like "best of the abandonware" though?

Like, in a theoretical scenario where they would allocate development resources to games by decreasing order of popularity, getting development attention at #8 rank would require Paradox to have resources for 8 simultaneous developments. So this rank looks a bit like a confirmation of why they have unplugged life support to I:R...

If we think about it that way does that mean that the newly released Empire of Sin will be abandoned??? after all IR is in front of him.

 

[Nicolas I]

Not to mention people like me waiting to see if Paradox will support/grow the game before buying it.

 

[stroknine]

If we think about it that way does that mean that the newly released Empire of Sin will be abandoned??? after all IR is in front of him.

Empire of Sin have less few active players than I:R.

 

[jmpnjkrbbt]

Not to mention people like me waiting to see if Paradox will support/grow the game before buying it.

I bought it in January right before 2.0 to support the game with the expectation pdx would continue supporting the game as they do all the others so I'm a bit salty they pulled the rug out from under it. But 2.0 with the invictus mod is probably one of the best pdx games in the stable right now so I really hope they return to it sooner rather than later and add even more depth with some new mechanics. Otherwise it's still worth a playthrough every once in a while due to the fantastic work of the invictus team.

 

[Daffius]

Is there a reason CK2 is missing from the list? Just curious to see where it stands.

 

[Kadanz]

If we think about it that way does that mean that the newly released Empire of Sin will be abandoned??? after all IR is in front of him.

Empire of sin is developed by a different dev team (Romero Games) and is only published by paradox interactive.

On a totally different note, I do hope they release a final patch adressing the modding issues because some of them are quite broken and hardly work. Even if they decide to completely can the franchise, at least allow the playerbase that remains to mod it with functional mod tools.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

I finally got around to really trying out I:R in the past few weeks while I wait for all the Paradox DLC on the horizon. I never played before Marius, so I don’t understand all the hate. The game is seriously fun.

I really hope more people give this game another chance and that Paradox restarts development.

I can't speak for anyone else, and I'm glad you're enjoying it; but in my case, encoutering a literally game-breaking bug* 30 hours in and being told by customer support that, actually, there's literally no-one there to fix Imperator bugs, (save on the very remote off-chance someone on their tech chat might find a few minutes)?

That has rather put me off both Imperator and lose a lot of faith in PDX**, since I bought the game before release and patiently waited for it to take shape like the others and like you, only picked it up to actually play a few weeks ago, on the apparently foolish assumption they had got it in a workable state. I have not encountered a bug that severe in any of the other GSGs (in my case CK2, EUIV, Vic 2, HoI4, Stellaris) previously.

It thus seems unlikely that this is going to be fixed, though I'm giving it a little over a full week before I finally conclude it's not happening (one feels by that point, any post the customer service person made on the internal chat will be long-buried) and whether it is worth spending likely several hours trying to experiment with save editing to see if MAYBE I can dig it out myself, or give it up as a bad job (and which point, I feel, I will have to leave an appropriate review).



(I'm also not terribly sold on the "roll up the year's events at the start of the year instead of the start of every month" which regardless of intent (possibly trying to reduce lag or something), comes across as "mandatory soft-core ironman," though to be fair, that is probably the worst thing I have to say about it otherwise and I know I am in the vanishing majority of people that actively hate RNG. On the other hand, if it WASN'T working like that, I could at least make some attempt to reload past the bug as a mitigation.)



*Consistent CTD when it tries to award a distinction to a legion that doesn't properly exist because it fracked itself up by letting me split a legion several hours previously. (As, unlike with the mercenary stacks, it let me split the legion up, which I did because of attrition, but it REALLY didn't like that, apparently, though it was not until several hours of gameplay later he ramifications became clear.)

**I am currently rather disinclined to give them any more future pennies, which is unfortunate, since they were pretty much the last larger company I had any time for.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Is there a reason CK2 is missing from the list? Just curious to see where it stands.

I think it is because it is free to play.

 

[Synen]

The most common reason that I have come across for why people don't want to buy the game or don't want to continue playing is because of the pause in development. You have mods but mods can only do so much. There clearly is interest for the game after 2.0, people just don't want to spend money and time on a game that doesn't get any development.

Like I wrote in another thread the best way for Paradox to show that they are serious about the new direction that they want to move towards is to make I:R the poster child of their new strategy/policy. I:R suffered the most under their old strategy/policy and reviving it will go a long way in restoring peoples faith and trust in Paradox.

 

[trewajg]

The most common reason that I have come across for why people don't want to buy the game or don't want to continue playing is because of the pause in development. You have mods but mods can only do so much. There clearly is interest for the game after 2.0, people just don't want to spend money and time on a game that doesn't get any development.

Like I wrote in another thread the best way for Paradox to show that they are serious about the new direction that they want to move towards is to make I:R the poster child of their new strategy/policy. I:R suffered the most under their old strategy/policy and reviving it will go a long way in restoring peoples faith and trust in Paradox.

It's a real shame. After 2.0 came out I thought all the game needed before being reborn into a truly superior pdx game and starting to atract a lot of people was a real fleshed out combat system on the next big update. It really is a shame paradox stopped and I really hope they return next year. Really all they need to do is come back, release a 3.0 and market it as a brand new game, because it really is compared to the horrible game it was at launch.
The game's popularity right now is not any indicative of how good the game is, as paradox essentially released a game, then updated into a superior game sequel without telling anyone. Anyone who still plays it only does so because either they had the curiosity of trying the game after 2.0 or were actively following imperator/paradox releases.