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Why are they still developing EU4?

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Barron of Gondor

Barron of Gondor

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Mar 23, 2018
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EU4 is one of the most popular PDX games, so EU5 is all but certain. And because EU4 is now older than some of its players; I'm speculating that it's probably in the works. Now I'm not familiar in the in's and out's of game development, but why are they spending manpower and money on a game that most people expected to have been retired by now? Wouldn't it make more since to take the people making the current "Content" for EU4 and move them onto the development of EU5?
 
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I would not consider the game finished yet...I hope development will continue until it is and will continue supporting the product so long as progress is made. Decadence mechanics is one of those steps. If EU V were to be more suited to a different playstyle there is a good chance I would play both. EU V need not end EU IV if it appeals to a different niche of the market.
 
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The impression I get is that they're much more experimental nowadays, and I think they're doing as much test work as they can for things that could be ported to EU5. Hence the dynamic mission trees, vast slew of new modifiers, etc. Throwing everything against the wall and seeing what works - and what doesn't.
 
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EUIV isn't even ten years old yet, so I'm not sure where you're getting "EU4 is now older than some of its players" from. The vast majority of the player base is older than the game.

As for why they're still developing the game, its because it makes them money. DLC sales is where most of a games profitability come from.
 
Barron of Gondor said:
EU4 is one of the most popular PDX games, so EU5 is all but certain. And because EU4 is now older than some of its players; I'm speculating that it's probably in the works. Now I'm not familiar in the in's and out's of game development, but why are they spending manpower and money on a game that most people expected to have been retired by now? Wouldn't it make more since to take the people making the current "Content" for EU4 and move them onto the development of EU5?
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As you can see from the dev diaries

People making the current "content" as you put it amount to a grand total of 2 in their number.
Add outsourced QA
Add some programmer work(not as much as in the past, because there are no new mechanics nowadays, the majority of programmer work being done is new modifiers)


And that's enough to cover like 85% of what it takes to keep EU4 running ^^
(I'm obviously grossly oversimplifying)


Remember that at some point in the past the team for EU4 consisted of literally 2 people from what we were told.
 
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Barron of Gondor said:
EU4 is one of the most popular PDX games, so EU5 is all but certain. And because EU4 is now older than some of its players; I'm speculating that it's probably in the works. Now I'm not familiar in the in's and out's of game development, but why are they spending manpower and money on a game that most people expected to have been retired by now? Wouldn't it make more since to take the people making the current "Content" for EU4 and move them onto the development of EU5?
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How do you know that EU5 isn't being developed right now?
 
The real answers are,

a) There's still content to be made and bug fixes to develop.

b) Developing the design and coding abilities of the team. Can you imagine if they made EU5 with the skills they had when developing Leviathan? I imagine that's a nightmare for a few of the devs right now.
 
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Well I certainly doubt your assessment that there are players that are younger than the game itself, this game caters to a specific audience which doesn't normally include children at or under the age of 10.

As for you remark about the development of EU4, it's because EU4 is still an extremely good game, but not fully complete. Why stop developing a game when improvements can still be made for next to nothing. Why stop improving a game that has a loyal following.

I also don't think EU5 is at an advanced development stage just yet, hence why EU4 is still being given DLC's. I don't think we will see any news of EU5 this year, maybe I am wrong though.
 
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Cpt.Cross said:
After Vic 3 and CK 3 im not sure I want a sequel.
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Agreed. Or at least I don't want to see a sequel for another few years. At least make sure EU4 is fully complete and stocked up so I can carry on playing that when EU5 for mobile releases...
 
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Barron of Gondor said:
EU4 is one of the most popular PDX games, so EU5 is all but certain. And because EU4 is now older than some of its players; I'm speculating that it's probably in the works. Now I'm not familiar in the in's and out's of game development, but why are they spending manpower and money on a game that most people expected to have been retired by now? Wouldn't it make more since to take the people making the current "Content" for EU4 and move them onto the development of EU5?
Click to expand...
I don't work there, but, it's probably because they think they can still consistently sell new content for more money than it cost them to make? That's usually why that happens.

I'm having a ton of fun with it, I'm in no rush for an EU5.
 
Barron of Gondor said:
EU4 is one of the most popular PDX games, so EU5 is all but certain. And because EU4 is now older than some of its players; I'm speculating that it's probably in the works. Now I'm not familiar in the in's and out's of game development, but why are they spending manpower and money on a game that most people expected to have been retired by now? Wouldn't it make more since to take the people making the current "Content" for EU4 and move them onto the development of EU5?
Click to expand...

The devs answered similar questions before. The answer to when they will stop making DLCs and instead focus on the next game had always been "when it is no longer more profitable to do so".

Making a new sequel takes way more investment than making more content for the current game.
 
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fleetothemoon said:
The devs answered similar questions before. The answer to when they will stop making DLCs and instead focus on the next game had always been "when it is no longer more profitable to do so".

Making a new sequel takes way more investment than making more content for the current game.
Click to expand...

I don't believe I've ever seen the devs say something like that around here. What I have heard them say is they won't make a sequel just to make a sequel but rather because they have ideas for improvements they can't execute with the current game.

As for the original question; why wouldn't they? Unlike 99+% of other games out there EU IVs active player base is still growing after all this time. At the end of the day they're a business and it's not good business to just turn your back and walk away from servicing a growing market...
 
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