I don’t believe recent player #’s show true interest.

[Dual_CoRed]

I, like many were completely underwhelmed by IR at launch. The new team breathed new life into the game with 2.0, and it was enjoyable but I felt it needed a bit more. I believe I’m one of thousands who shelved the game with interest. Just wanted to make a post for Paradox to consider the PR boost they would get to reconsider their position on IR. A large, well developed DLC would be good for PR and profitable financially.

 

[Wagonlitz]

I too would really love to se more done to Imperator.
I've been following it ever since reveal, preordered it, and have got all the DLC at release.

I don't have that much time to play games these days, so I won't show up in player numbers much, but I will get games I really like at release.

 

[Godd_Howard]

I have not played Imperator for about a month after 2.0 because I didn't have the time and now that I wanted to play some more they pulled the plug on it and I basically have 0 desire to play right now. But will play a lot more in the near future. I was Bashing Imperator every chance I got on release but after 2.0 came out it was like an entirely new game, I even rushed to buy the Heirs of Alexander DLC.

 

[macd21]

I think they’re aware of that, it just doesn’t matter. They’re suffering from a staffing problem due to Covid, and while IR has potential interest, their other games have current interest.

 

[Daft]

Agreed. I haven't had much time to play ANY games at all for the last few weeks. Busy at work, a water leak at home etc. Can't wait until I can get stuck into building my Roman Empire again.

 

[Bennet_17]

Agreed. I already have nearly 2,000 hours in this game. But most of this time was pre 2.0
I was and am still waiting for (bug-) fixes like the ability for rulers to lead legions. Furthermore major exams are currently my priority.
I love the game and would play it even more in the future but due to these things I only play it rarely at the moment.

 

[Reiryc]

I would be happy paying for flavor packs at this point... no new mechanics, just additional mission trees and fleshing out additional nations, particularly tribal nations to add some differentiation between them. It wouldn't require significant investment from paradox and for the $9.99 price, easy on the wallet.

 

[jmpnjkrbbt]

 

[TheK00lAidMan]

I think you're certainly right that there is far more interest in an ancient world themed Paradox grand strategy game than the paltry 1,000 avg player count I:R is getting on Steam. No doubt. Problem is that ship has sailed for I:R, even before they announced suspension of development. Generally a game like this has 1 shot at catching on and developing a strong player base, and that's at launch. Paradox dropped that ball and it's incredibly difficult to come back from no matter how good you subsequently make the game. There are exceptions like No Man's Sky, but they very much are the exception. That's not normal. It was always going to be a moonshot for I:R to develop a core player base large enough to support the economics of long term support and development after the launch it had and generally poor feedback it got from the grand strategy community.

Ultimately I'm sure Paradox looked at the player metrics they had which seem to be 1/10 of even CKIII which is the next lowest after I:R and the sales of the Alexander DLC in making a decision on whether or not it was financially feasible to keep supporting I:R and if they thought they still had a chance of bringing the community interest and player numbers back from the grave or not.

 

[Lamisatr]

I think you're certainly right that there is far more interest in an ancient world themed Paradox grand strategy game than the paltry 1,000 avg player count I:R is getting on Steam. No doubt. Problem is that ship has sailed for I:R, even before they announced suspension of development. Generally a game like this has 1 shot at catching on and developing a strong player base, and that's at launch. Paradox dropped that ball and it's incredibly difficult to come back from no matter how good you subsequently make the game. There are exceptions like No Man's Sky, but they very much are the exception. That's not normal. It was always going to be a moonshot for I:R to develop a core player base large enough to support the economics of long term support and development after the launch it had and generally poor feedback it got from the grand strategy community.

Pretty much this.

Hello games had one game to concentrate on and had their entire reputation on the line, they'd had massive sales and interest in the game for years, very different scenario to the low-key release of a GSG like IR. It was just a far bigger product and easier to salvage because they player-base was already there.

It was DOA, everyone can see that now, 2 years of good progress could not save the game, nothing was ever going to grow the player-base to sustaianble levels from PDX point of view.