PDX CEO Change

[Horrendus]

Hello,

interesting news from: https://www.gamewatcher.com/news/breaking-ebba-ljungerud-steps-down-as-paradox-interactive-ceo

Ebba Ljundergrud stepped down as CEO of PDX "due to differing views on the company's strategy going forward" and Fred Wester was reappointed CEO by the board.

All the best to Ebba for the next adventures and all the best to Fred for his return as CEO!

Edit: Paradox press release: https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...ab-publ-changes-ceo-and-chairman-of-the-board

 

[Negru Voda]

I wonder what divergence of strategic vision might have occurred.

Having former PDX CEO Fred Wester at the helm sounds like a stabilizing move. But I wonder which way the company is going to be taken (a way which presumably Ebba didn’t want to go in?).

Ebba came on in 2018 as CEO. PDX is more mainstream and widely recognized than ever imo, but maybe the board had even greater expectations (?). There have been some rough launches and development troubles in recent years.

 

[the_korben]

Good luck and all the best for both Ebba and Fredrik!

 

[Vetgirig]

The name of the latest podcast is kind of strange:

 

[TolHydra]

The article mentions Imperator and Leviathan among possible causes. Of those two I have to disagree.

Imperator is one of the greatest comeback stories. Its initial sales, as was said in the quarterly report, had exceeded the expectations. The 1.0's design that I hated along with everyone else ended up being fixed to near-perfection, and the game could finally take a breather and be solidly built upon. The only large fault here was going along with the axing its development, which ended up completely killing whatever momentum that was achieved through much blood and tears.

As for Leviathan, the sheer amount of outrage it managed to generate is tragic. Some of it is warranted, absolutely. But not to the degree that it received. I've seen someone mention people being way less forgiving due to games occupying a larger space of their lives due to lockdowns. I feel like that might be true here.

In any case, I took a liking to what I have seen about Fredrik too over the years, but it's not like the majority of the past PDS releases under his management were any different. I abhorred EU4 1.0.

 

[Standstill]

Can't express how happy I am to have Fredrik Wester back at the helm.

Really curious to hear where the "disagreement" happened, though...

 

[Sam L]

Just saw, what does this mean?

 

[Jia Xu]

Claimant faction to re-install Frederick I as Emperor has succeeded.

 

[Slargos]

While it is probably the case that at this point Paradox is essentially a constitutional monarchy, with the CEO as more of a symbolic figurehead than anything else, this news does warm my black, traditionalist heart.

Wester is, essentially, Paradox.

Majesty 3 confirmed?

Long live the king!

 

[Raiwons]

I just hope that Paradox will not turn towards toxic monetization policies because of greed.
We had enough Blizzard for a decade or so.

 

[Hazes4ever]

Paradox is probably in a difficult situation right now. Their games are now becoming sort of mainstream while in practice they are still complex games.

So I can imagine lots of discussions are ongoing internally whether to go more mainstream or focus on the OG hardcore crowd.

These are very difficult decisions and I am not suprised it cost the head of the CEO.

 

[diegosimeone]

Not sure if I remember correctly, but wasn't Ebba appointed to make Paradox more mainstream and give them a mobile games presence? Or at least that was her background or something.

Either way, we cannot know what this means as consumers of PDX games until we see the next moves.

 

[Victor Cortez]

The last quartely report was... significant.

 

[Aeroclub]

So the board wanted a different direction...but we still don't know what exactly was it different to.

Meaning, do they want it to be different to what it is now (so, we will see some major changes)?
Or, do they want it to be different to what Ebba has envisioned but never implemented (so, they want things to stay the way they are)?

 

[Hazes4ever]

The last quartely report was... significant.

What was in the Q report?

 

[Avernite]

What was in the Q report?

Presumably this bit:

 

[Negru Voda]

14% stock increase versus previous day - after the news about the leadership change started circulating

 

[Froonk]

I hope the differing views was that strategy of just churning out content and mechanic updates without fleshing out the systems and integrating them back in the game wasn't working. As back to back mechanic DLCs with no clean up free updates with no mechanics/system changes between them like in the case of Emperor and Leviathan just made game into an incoherent pile of abstractions. Especially with Swedish development cycle of practically no big patches in summer & winter.

 

[Gyrvendal]

Wow those numbers really tell the story! I'm curous why the dip in income though. Is it due to higher expenses from opening new studios, or did the games sell less?

 

[Gyrvendal]

I hope the differing views was that strategy of just churning out content and mechanic updates without fleshing out the systems and integrating them back in the game wasn't working. As back to back mechanic DLCs with no clean up free updates with no mechanics/system changes between them like in the case of Emperor and Leviathan just made game into an incoherent pile of abstractions. Especially with Swedish development cycle of practically no big patches in summer & winter.

I don't think the CEO is involved in such game development decisions though.