Update of the organization at PDS

[podcat]

Wait is Podcat being replaced as Hoi4’s head? I’m surprised he isn’t in charge of Gold

I think perhaps the post should have explained what a studio head is ;D I am a Game Director which means I work with the game and do the fun stuff. Thomas does the boring personnel, budget and money things for PDS Gold, if I may simplify it a little

 

[podcat]

Mad few days as a paradox fan ngl...

yeah man. I need some beer and chill now

I'm confused: how is this different than the existing structure of the dev teams split among the core franchises (CK3, HoI4, Stellaris, EU4, I:R)? It kind of just sounds like the CK3, HoI4 and Stellaris teams now have color-coded names (since EU4's team is now in Barcelona).

I mean kinda. Its not a big deal to you guys but I think they worried there would be some confusion with listing several people as studio managers. And remember that there may or may not be other secret games going on too inside those studios. Basically its a way for us internally to organize better so we can focus on the games and have less overhead and distractions from having grown quite large.

 

[Dnote]

Ok

Are you going to outsource Imperator to the same studio that made Battle for the Bosporus DLC?

That wasn't completely outsourced, they had a CD freelancer contribute to it, but the DLC was still made by PDS.

 

[MrNibbles]

This is not a disbanding of teams, just an organizational restructuration, right? If yes, then I'm reliefed, I thought of bad news when I read that title.

No, no disbanding of teams - they are still the same people as usual (given the natural movement of people that want to switch projects that happens etc)

 

[konbendith]

How does Paradox Tinto compare to e.g. Paradox Arctic or Paradox Thalassic regarding company structure? It sounds like the latter are part of PDS while Tinto is not. What are the effects of this?

Tinto is its own studio, lead by Johan, in charge of EU4. They are working separate from PDS, they talk of course, they make the same kind of games after all, but they rarely work directly together. Afaik there is no one right now at PDS working directly with EU4 (except for maybe the central Clausewitz team since EU4 use the engine, and there can always be the exception of one person I don't know about, but I think you see my point!)

Arctic and Thalassic are right now working much more integrated with PDS, to support the development of existing games (specifically, Stellaris and CK3). Doesn't mean they won't have their own projects eventually, but for now their focus is helping PDS develop content for these games.

Hope that clarifies the difference!

Does this affect the unionization that PDS went through recently, or do all the new studios maintain their union agreements?

Not at all, the collective agreement affects all employees of Paradox in Sweden, regardless of their studio. And technically, the restructure of PDS hasn't changed much. Some people changed managers or teams, but no one was let go, and technically everyone is still working at PDS.

By the way, we haven't specified the timeline in @Dnote original post, but this change of structure (Red, Green, Gold) isn't exactly new, it's been announced last November to the studio, and has been effective pretty much since January.

Also fun fact, it was originally PDS Yellow, but I believe it's @podcat (but might misremember) who went: "No, no, no... GOLD. "

 

[podcat]

Not RGB? Why Gold over Blue?

Bit of a stupid question, I know, but RGB flows so naturally I genuinely did a double take when it wasn't.

The old paradox logo had a lot of blue so I think thats why we didnt consider it as we didnt want one to be "the old studio".

Also fun fact, it was originally PDS Yellow, but I believe it's @podcat (but might misremember) who went: "No, no, no... GOLD. "

yes gold is cooler ;D I feel like yellow has bad uses in language also, to quote a random googling "The color yellow has always been associated with treachery, cowardice, jealousy and inconsistency."
So much better to be GOLD

 

[Meneth]

Does this affect the unionization that PDS went through recently, or do all the new studios maintain their union agreements?

As one of the union representatives at Paradox, I can also confirm this doesn't affect the collective bargaining agreement as all.
Legally speaking, the 3 studios are all just a part of the PDS legal entity rather than separate entities, so legal matters like the collective agreement are unaffected.

On the practical side, the effect's not huge. Biggest difference really is just that our PDS-union collaboration meetings now have more people in it since it now involves 3 studio heads instead of 1.

 

[Jamor]

All I can think of are the color-designated rebel squadrons from Star Wars.

I have quite literally said "copy Gold Leader, we're starting our attack run now" in video calls.

Yes, I am apparently a professionally employed adult.

 

[konbendith]

I hope you don't mind me asking and if it's secret corporate strategic information that can't be disclosed, I'll understand
I'm just curious about the organization around the development of the Clausewitz engine: is there a dedicated team working on it, and if so, is it separate from the 3 Studios, or integrated in one of the 3, or spread out among the 3?
Oh, and what the heck, while I'm here asking, what about the Launcher development team: is it done in-house or is it outsourced?
Thanks for your attention

Yes, there an 'engine team' in charge of Clausewitz, I don't know who they exactly report to in the new structure, but they do work centrally to maintain the engine for all teams that use it. The launcher is also developed internally by our Player Services and DevOps teams (they're going to hate me for such a broad summary but they're basically in charge of most the development and services that aren't directly games: launcher, forum, websites....)

 

[Dnote]

So where does Victoria III come in this? <insert the missing forum emoji for thinking here>

It is in PDS Red. So, no pressure on them

 

[blackninja9939]

Yes, I know im necro'ing.

According to her Linkedin page Linda Tiger is Studio Manager of PDS Black. Anyone know what they do?

Crusader Kings 3, Paradox Thalassic is continuing to work closely with us in Black on CK3

Studio Red is continuing under Johanna as Studio Manager with the Victoria 3 team

 

[konbendith]

Ha! Someone noticed

I'll answer directly as there is no juicy speculation to have (sorry!). PDS Black is the (new) PDS studio in charge of CK3, it has split away from PDS Red as the team was getting quite big, and the decision was made to separate it in two. Linda (who was the producer for CK3 before the original release) has taken the lead of the studio as you spotted on her Linkedin. PDS Red still exists and is in charge of Victoria 3, as before.
TL;DR - PDS Black is developing CK3, PDS Red is developing Vicky3.

Edit: Godammit, @blackninja9939 was faster than me.