Paradox genuinely believed that the release version of Imperator was a good game. Listen to the way that Johan talked about it after the launch - it's obvious he was personally devastated by Imperator's failure.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they genuinely believed that Emperor and Leviathan DLC were good and fun to play, tooBut I don't think you can blame PDS for releasing a game which they genuinely believed was good and fun to play.
Looking how positive that feedback stays for nowadays bad games... I wouldn't trust it or use as an argument, especially for the state of I:R at launchThe feedback from professional reviewers was also very positive
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