I haven't asked anyone at Paradox about Victoria 3 in about 8 months (thought it may not fell like that to you), so here it is:
Who has the ultimate say on whether and when V3 gets made? Is it Shams? Johan? Fred? Susanna?
Thankfully, we nowadays have removed such (immense) power from the fingertips of single person. We now have a process with multiple smartypants involved. It (roughly) looks like this.
1: Someone puts forth an idea
2: I help vet/develop the idea - is it a Paradox game, will it make money, is it fun, does it gel with where we're headed, will the forumites like it etc etc - lots of smart questions.
3: Others give the thumbs up.
4: A small team creates a proof of concept.
5: We play the proof of concept - if fun we go to step 6 - if not -back to step 1.
6: Full production.
The question is - Rome 2, Victoria 3, Gettysburg 2, Magicka 3, CK 4, EU5, Cities in Space 6, Stalin Vs Martians HD 7 , Queen Arthur 8 and Nights of Pen & Paper 9 - where are they in the process?
Kidding aside. A lot of games get to step 1&2 - few make it to 3, fewer to 4.
/shams