Following several setbacks such as the cancellation of Life By You and the disastrous launch of Cities: Skylines 2, Paradox Interactive has outlined their strategy moving forward, informed by their recent experiences with player expectations.
Paradox Interactive Explains Recent Games' Cancellation and Delay
Players Have Expectations, and Some Technical Problems are Hard to Fix
In a candid discussion during Paradox Interactive's recent Media Day, CEO Mattias Lilja and CCO Henrik Fahraeus addressed the evolving attitudes of gamers towards game releases. Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Lilja noted that players now have "higher expectations" and are increasingly "less trusting" that developers will resolve issues post-launch.
Reflecting on the troubled release of Cities: Skylines 2 last year, Paradox is now adopting a more meticulous approach to troubleshooting. Fahraeus emphasized the importance of early player access, stating, "If we could have brought players in to try it on a larger scale, that would have helped." He expressed a desire for "a larger degree of openness with players" before future game launches.
In response to these insights, Paradox decided to indefinitely delay their jail management simulator, Prison Architect 2. Lilja affirmed confidence in the game's core gameplay but acknowledged "quality issues" that necessitated the delay. He clarified that the delay differs from the cancellation of Life By You, explaining, "It's not the same kind of bucket of challenges that we had with Life By You, which led to cancellation. It's more that we haven't been able to keep the pace that we wanted." He added that some issues proved "harder to fix than we thought" during peer reviews and user testing.
For Prison Architect 2, the primary concerns are "mostly certain technical issues rather than design," Lilja noted. He stressed the importance of ensuring a "technically high-quality enough for a stable release," acknowledging that gamers now have higher expectations and are "less accepting that you will fix things over time."
Lilja further discussed the competitive nature of the gaming industry, describing it as a "winner-takes-all type of environment." He observed that players are increasingly likely to abandon games quickly, a trend that has intensified over the last two years, based on data from Paradox's own games and market trends.
The launch of Cities: Skylines 2 last year was marred by significant issues, leading to a fan backlash that prompted a joint apology from Paradox and developer Colossal Order. They proposed a "fan feedback summit" and delayed the game's first paid DLC due to performance problems. Meanwhile, Life By You was canceled earlier this year after Paradox determined that further development would not meet the standards expected by both the company and its community. Lilja admitted that some problems were "not really understood fully" by the team, taking full responsibility by stating, "that's totally on us."
