It hurts too much. It seems that PDX prefers buggy popular releases over the decent game...
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And that s a problem. Btw, Imperator would sell well if PDX actually promoted it more after 2.0
But they decided to stab it, in the back, several times.
Thankfully, at least it reached a modicum of glory before its death, so modders can work on that, hopefully
But they decided to stab it, in the back, several times.
Thankfully, at least it reached a modicum of glory before its death, so modders can work on that, hopefully
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I figure this wasn't a decision made in haste, but a development long in the making.
So I'm imagining how it must've felt to work on a project knowing it'd be the end...
I suppose that was an incentive to make their time count, to make sure it really was the swan song it ended up being.
And when it released, seeing how well it was received, I'll bet the sense of satisfaction from a job well done must have been mixed with some really bittersweet feelings.
All the while we were completely none the wiser, in our blissful ignorance.
So I'm imagining how it must've felt to work on a project knowing it'd be the end...
I suppose that was an incentive to make their time count, to make sure it really was the swan song it ended up being.
And when it released, seeing how well it was received, I'll bet the sense of satisfaction from a job well done must have been mixed with some really bittersweet feelings.
All the while we were completely none the wiser, in our blissful ignorance.
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It still ain't dead yet. They're putting it on hold and maybe they never pick it back up, or maybe they get back to it later this year or something. Who knows.
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That's what they are saying right now, kinda hard for me to believe honestly.
You're free to believe what you will, it just shows you're a man of more faith than I am, but until second order, I'm considering imperator dead.
Sure would love to be proven wrong though.
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It's less faith and more just "It is what it is". They say it's on hold not cancelled, so I'm willing to roll with that until shown otherwise.
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It is what it is... until it isn't.
But I sincerely hope you are right.
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Exactly. Their marketing was horrible around this patch, despite 2.0 bringing the biggest changes to the game ever.
Had they marketed it properly AND continued to support it now that it was getting attention, it would've actually gained a lot of players. Many players, spurned by EU4, were starting to give Imperator a chance in the last three days. The dev team led by Arheo had completely turned the game around and made it into a decent, playable game at least. All those corporate execs had to do was to wait a bit.
Instead they abandoned it, because they need devs to go fix the mess they made with EU4.
Paradox management at upper level seems too greedy and pathetic for their own good. Its like Johan killed two games in one stroke.
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Just to be clear: They did market 2.0 extensively because the plan was always to halt development after 2.0 was released.
It has nothing to do with EU4 (a game which is now developed by an entirely different studio) or with 2.0's failure to permanently increase player numbers.
Paradoxes plan from the start was to develop Imperator to a point where the game was good enough for there to be demand for future development (either on Imperator in the near future or on Imperator 2 ten years now). The point of Imperator 2.0 was never to be a grand revival of the game, it was to maximise the future value of the PDX, PDS and Imperator: Rome brands.
Actually, in retrospective I feel stupid for not realising this sooner. At the time I did think it was strange that Marius didn't have a much bigger marketing budget, but I didn't put two and two together....
In fact, @Dnote, I know this probably not information you can give out freely. But if you can, could you confirm one thing for me? The decision to discontinue IR was made in the same meeting in which you decided to delay the "Autumn of War" patch and turn it into Imperator 2.0, wasn't it?
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Yeah the timelines make no sense for this to be in response to Leviathan. They decided to kill* IR well before Marius, hence no push. Even if they knew that Leviathan would bomb (the Devs would know the product wasn't going to hit the deadline, but their bosses calculated that it wouldn't matter) nobody from this team are going there.
*yes, kill. You can't fully take a team off a project of this, retrain them in another large project, and expect to turn back. Building a new team from the ground up will never be worthwhile, and bringing back the old team after integrating them elsewhere is just a terribly inefficient use of their labour. You can leave open the possibility of return all you like, but this move will incur more cost to return, so I cant see a rational person pausing it now ever thinking it's a good idea to revive it when it costs more and nothing else has changed.
*yes, kill. You can't fully take a team off a project of this, retrain them in another large project, and expect to turn back. Building a new team from the ground up will never be worthwhile, and bringing back the old team after integrating them elsewhere is just a terribly inefficient use of their labour. You can leave open the possibility of return all you like, but this move will incur more cost to return, so I cant see a rational person pausing it now ever thinking it's a good idea to revive it when it costs more and nothing else has changed.
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This is why they need to leave the door open. Nobody knows if nothing else will change.
What if scenarios:
1) new game is a flop and they need to regain goodwill
Even then there would be still the question where a possible consolation effort would go:
- in "de-flopping" the new game, where you have disappointed new customers freshly...which expect to get their purchase fixed
OR
- in resuming development of old game, which has no direct connection to the "new flop". How should marketing/PR sell such a move? "We realize that new release XYP is so crappy and beyond hope to salvage, so we drop it immediately and go back to IR!"
Depends on how they value their company and their target audience. If they want to bring new customers every time, then all hope is lost.
If they want to build a loyal customer base they will make what is possible to show long term commitment everywhere. Both the new IP and I:R will get treated well.
We will see with the new game. I bet they think all will be forgotten with the hype.
In an ideal world yes (and of course I would be glad with it), but given that development ressources are limited (not technically, but maybe/likely for the amount of money they are willing/able to spend), I fear that the new IP will win the contest.
There is a non written agreement that when you buy a game chez Paradox, development will keep going for some time. In the case of I:R it has been two years and we think it has not been enough. That is debatable.
But I see more repeating customers holding to buy the new game until some time has passed. This bodes bad for future sales in all games PDX.
I'm not saying that it is the right decision. Nor it is one I have expected - I was convinced that in world a where things are moving towards "gaming as a service" Paradox would keep to that principle by only "opening a new front", if everything old could be still maintained until the usual end of the lifecycle of a paradox GSG.
I personally will not directly "punish" Paradox for this decision (as I don't feel betrayed - seen from the ratio of invested money vs. gained fun from IR, it was one of the best games I purchased ever already long before 2.0 dropped) by delaying purchase of HOI4/CK3 DLCs or a potentially new game (provided that I'm interested in it and it looks like a stable release), but they will still lose money from me by this decision, as the share intended to be spend for IR content will go elsewhere (= to other games fulflling my desire for ancient age gameplay). And what will surely not happen is that I dive into EU4, Stellaris or another current franchise (except the formentioned HoI/CK)...
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