CEO of Paradox on Trends (The Future)

[imperial.]

CEO of Paradox Ebba Ljungerud on Trends and Live Services specifically in Technology and Gaming.

My thoughts,

Interestingly she said in regards to regulation trends to ''adapt to each and every country'' well, this should therefore apply to customer trends and the fact that many customers especially in the west prefer other means of gaming PC / Console to mobile. Many Companies receive backlash from the customers for their lack of understanding and yet willfully continue to push mobile games as a service (Asia hand - held model) in each and every country.

She is now CEO of Paradox from 2018 -

 

[Godd_Howard]

I wrote a joke comment on youtube about Paradox becomming a mobile game dev instead of making real games when Leviathan came out. I didn't know i was this close to the truth.

Hey investors, free business pro tip from me, feel free to use it anytime. Next time hire someone who knows something about games instead of gambling. I get it guys, you were born before the Great War and they are both called "games" but trust me on this one.

 

[imperial.]

I wrote a joke comment on youtube about Paradox becomming a mobile game dev instead of making real games when Leviathan came out. I didn't know i was this close to the truth.

Hey investors, free business pro tip from me, feel free to use it anytime. Next time hire someone who knows something about games instead of gambling. I get it guys, you were born before the Grat War and they are both called "games" but trust me on this one.

Haha I was actually Inspired by your previous post, you know what's also very popular? toilet paper. Paradox should instead make toilet paper for gamers when I'm using my mobile to post memes in the bathroom. Who needs EU5 anyway.

 

[Revshawn]

CEO of Paradox Ebba Ljungerud on Trends and Live Services more specifically in Technology and Gaming.

My thoughts,

Interestingly she said in regards to the regulation trends to ''adapt to each and every country'' well, this should therefore apply to customer trends and the fact that many customers especially in the west prefer other means of gaming PC / Console to mobile. And yet many Companies receive backlash from the customers for their lack of understanding and yet willfully continue to push mobile games as a service (Asia hand - held model) in each and every country.

She is now CEO of Paradox from 2018 -

I just think that it's highly ironic that a woman who was the CEO of a gambling gaming company is now gambling that she can transform all of Paradox's long running strategy games into mobile games where you buy virtual currency and give them money and expect the company's reputation to survive. It's a high stakes game and she's carrying a 2/3 offsuit, but she's going ahead with it anyway because that's all she knows.

What will happen instead is that the games will disappear into an oversaturated mobile game ocean and never be seen or played by anyone and now you've wasted a lot of money. What a lot of people don't understand, especially in business where chasing 'trends' as she calls it can screw you because you don't pay attention to the details, is that these mobile games can turn around and crash in as quickly as six months. Making a successful mobile game isn't as easy as just throwing any known IP onto the internet and cashing the check from Apple. There are things that work and things that don't work. And Paradox is the absolute opposite of a company that would be successful in the mobile game industry. It doesn't even come close.

 

[Snow Crystal]

What exactly is the point here?

Clearly PDS is not turning into a mobile studio, as not a single developer from PDS is currently working on a mobile title. As was stated in the update about the internal restructuring of PDS - we have several games in development, as well as all of the titles we already support, and all of those are on PC. By that logic, we're clearly not going to change for the foreseeable future. Even Paradox Malmö, a studio that used to be focused on mobile titles, has been reshaped into Paradox Thalassic - a support studio for our current PC titles.

I know doom and gloom is the preferred dish for a lot of people on these forums right now, but do we really need to start dragging up videos from 2015 and trying to blow things out of proportions?

 

[Seleukos.I.Nikator]

Good to see you back on the Imperator team, @Snow Crystal.

You've been sorely missed over those past few terrible weeks!

 

[IsaacCAT]

From the latest quarterly report published, words from Ebba Ljungerud in italic, bold letters my own editing:

"In recent years, the core games have consisted of Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Stellaris, Hearts of Iron and Cities: Skylines. We also have several franchises in our portfolio of management and strategy games that have great opportunities to establish themselves as core games, such as Surviving Mars, Age of Wonders, and Prison Architect. At the other end of our portfolio, we have not-yet-released games based on new brands that are partly outside our current core areas. The development of these games is often associated with higher risk, but when they become successful, they attract new players and expand our core areas. For us, it is therefore important to have a good balance between building on our existing core games with new content and sequels, and at the same time growing the portfolio with new games. We have recently adjusted the weighting with the result that we invest a larger part of our investments and resources in the core areas of strategy and management games.

This means, for example, that we continue to develop Surviving Mars and could during the first quarter of the year announce that new content is being built by our partner studio Abstraction Games, with several content releases planned for the coming year. Surviving Mars recently reached five million unique players and we see great opportunities for the game to establish itself as part of our core portfolio."

Could I:R make a comeback like Surviving Mars? Maybe. It is older and has as many players as I:R. That makes me think that I:R was strategically frozen not to compete with the next game from PDS.

"In February, we participated in the Steam Lunar New Year Sale which contributed to increased sales of our games, not least in China. The Chinese market has gradually increased in importance for us and during the first quarter of the year it was our second largest market after the USA in terms of sales."

Next games focus is having China for sure. Will I:R have the expansion to include China and Japan? Hopefully.

"Although player activity and growth have been strong during the pandemic, we have, despite great efforts from all our staff and partners, lost efficiency in certain areas due to working from home and I therefore look forward to meeting all colleagues in the offices again soon."

Hopefully this means that I:R gets a new team of rookies working on MOD tools and bug fixes.

 

[Godd_Howard]

What exactly is the point here?

Clearly PDS is not turning into a mobile studio, as not a single developer from PDS is currently working on a mobile title. As was stated in the update about the internal restructuring of PDS - we have several games in development, as well as all of the titles we already support, and all of those are on PC. By that logic, we're clearly not going to change for the foreseeable future. Even Paradox Malmö, a studio that used to be focused on mobile titles, has been reshaped into Paradox Thalassic - a support studio for our current PC titles.

I know doom and gloom is the preferred dish for a lot of people on these forums right now, but do we really need to start dragging up videos from 2015 and trying to blow things out of proportions?

It's more of a "Imperator got canned and I need somebody to blame" kind of thing, at least for me. I'm biased and will not hide it.

 

[stratigo]

It depends more on how much she understands the market she now finds herself in verse the market she left. There is some amount of overlap (yes even between mobile and traditional gaming) so it's not like they hired someone who, say, worked for coca cola.

 

[Snow Crystal]

View attachment 717359

Good to see you back on the Imperator team, @Snow Crystal.

You've been sorely missed over those past few terrible weeks!

Oh right, I need to change that. Good call.

 

[IsaacCAT]

However, the trend is there for all to see, they have increased their mobile sales. Albeit, from a low point it is true, but to increase you have to invest first:

Remember this is PDX not PDS. PDX now includes many other studios besides PDS.

 

[Daft]

To be fair, expanding into the mobile market seems like a no-brainer. Especially for a company that I assume wants to grow and expand into new markets. Not only non-gsg games, but new plattforms.

 

[LSF]

However, the trend is there for all to see, they have increased their mobile sales. Albeit, from a low point it is true, but to increase you have to invest first:

View attachment 717363

Remember this is PDX not PDS. PDX now includes many other studios besides PDS.

The console revenue is proportionaly higher than I would expect. How many games do they have on console?

 

[IsaacCAT]

The console revenue is proportionaly higher than I would expect. How many games do they have on console?

Stellaris, Cities: Skylines, Empire of Sin, Surviving Mars, Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Magicka 2 and Pillars of Eternity

 

[Daft]

The console revenue is proportionaly higher than I would expect. How many games do they have on console?

Stellaris, Planetfall, Cities Skylines, Empire of Sin, Surviving Mars, Magicka 2 and Pillars of Eternity from a quick look at their website. So actually more than I would have guessed from the top of my head.

@IsaacCAT was quicker.

 

[-SP0-]

i just wish that paradox had the same priorities as the old small studio that gave us eu3 and vic2

 

[Daft]

i just wish that paradox had the same priorities as the old small studio that gave us eu3 and vic2

What would those be, more specifically? I'm not arguing here, I am just curious. More of a focus on the gsg-side?

 

[-SP0-]

What would those be, more specifically? I'm not arguing here, I am just curious. More of a focus on the gsg-side?

Developing games because that's what they love, not to meet executive-imposed deadlines. The main thing for me is this wish for expanding the company into new markets and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, i understand that this is natural and an obvious thing to happen eventually, but it used to be a time when paradox games were played by a handful of people, and that was okay for them, as we were *their* handful of people. The focus wasn't on selling the product, but on making it.

As they mature as a company, they slowly drift from that indie mentality

 

[scriptkiddy]

What exactly is the point here?

Clearly PDS is not turning into a mobile studio, as not a single developer from PDS is currently working on a mobile title. As was stated in the update about the internal restructuring of PDS - we have several games in development, as well as all of the titles we already support, and all of those are on PC.

CK3 came out with pretty odd graphics though; lots of big buttons, comic-like characters, overall simplistic etc.

So the option of later on smoothly porting the new titles to mobile devices to grab those sweet 元 and ¥ is might indeed being considered by PDX management.

wish for expanding the company into new markets and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, i understand that this is natural and an obvious thing to happen eventually,

Just a little bonmot from my college prof for law and economics: growth without control or limit is the characteristic of a cancer cell. Funny guy, I really miss him.

 

[Godd_Howard]

CK3 came out with pretty odd graphics though; lots of big buttons, comic-like characters, overall simplistic etc.

So the option of later on smoothly porting the new titles to mobile devices to grab those sweet 元 and ¥ is might indeed being considered by PDX management.

You just described to me why I hate too look at CIV 6 for more than 5 minutes, even though CK3 is not nearly as bad on the graphical design front it still feels like an uncanny cartoon