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Hello! I’m Anders Törlind, Product Manager for the service we call the “Paradox Launcher”, as part of our Player Services team at Paradox Interactive. We’ve seen a growing number of questions in the past few weeks as we’ve started to see the launcher deployed on more of our games. I’ll try to answer some of them and bring more clarity on this topic today.
So, what is the “Paradox Launcher” anyway?
It’s a splash screen that several of our games use, it provides some features for these games (see below). The main purpose of the launcher is to centralize the development of these features so that the game teams can focus on what they’re best at: making games.
The launcher is a separate binary that is shared among several of our games. This means that there is typically only one installation of the launcher on your computer. It also attempts to keep itself up to date, meaning that different game teams don’t have to spend time making new releases of their games in order to get new launcher features or bug fixes delivered.
Why are we developing the launcher?
Long story short; costs and time savings. Having one central team making a launcher is better than having multiple game teams making multiple launchers or implementing identical features in their games.
The other benefit is that it enables us to offer a similar experience to our players on different distribution platforms. For example, in the olden days, only Steam users would get mods support for our PDS titles. With the launcher integrating PDX Mods, this can be made available to all players without the game team having to make any significant changes to the game itself.
What are the future plans?
With a team dedicated to launcher functionality, we have the capacity to develop features that individual game teams could not justify the cost of. We are currently focusing on the modding functionality, and exposing capabilities built into Paradox Mods. Essentially, our current priority is to make it easier for our players to use and manage their mods.
Isn’t it some form of DRM?
Nope. It does no kind of Digital Rights Management and will not prevent access to any content.
Is it tied to telemetrics or data tracking?
The launcher uses telemetry in the same way as all of our games do. It is covered by the same privacy policy (see our EULA), and abides by the GDPR rules for all users. So, no change tied to the launcher there, it’s the same policies and agreements that were already in place for all of our games.
What games are going to get the launcher?
Most of our upcoming PC titles will have the launcher. It will also be introduced for a selection of our existing titles, prioritizing those that can benefit the most from its features.
How does this relate to the “Paradox Launcher” found at play.paradoxplaza.com?
Ahhh! Nothing quite like a confusing naming scheme! The Paradox Launcher found at play.paradoxplaza.com is our “Distribution Client”, something similar to the Steam Client if you will. This client development has been on the back burner for some time while the team has been focused on the “splash screen” launcher you are probably here to read about.
In a not too far off future (we hope), these two functions - splash screen and distribution client - will be consolidated for those of our customers who choose to play through the PDX Distribution system. Other users shouldn’t notice any change from the current situation, though.
So what are all these features then?
The launcher does a number of things, it’s kind of our swiss-army-knife for Paradox games! Not all games necessarily have all of those features implemented yet, but I’ll give you a shortlist of fun stuff!
That’s it folks. Hope it answers some of your questions, but if you have more, feel free to ask in the thread!
So, what is the “Paradox Launcher” anyway?
It’s a splash screen that several of our games use, it provides some features for these games (see below). The main purpose of the launcher is to centralize the development of these features so that the game teams can focus on what they’re best at: making games.
The launcher is a separate binary that is shared among several of our games. This means that there is typically only one installation of the launcher on your computer. It also attempts to keep itself up to date, meaning that different game teams don’t have to spend time making new releases of their games in order to get new launcher features or bug fixes delivered.
Why are we developing the launcher?
Long story short; costs and time savings. Having one central team making a launcher is better than having multiple game teams making multiple launchers or implementing identical features in their games.
The other benefit is that it enables us to offer a similar experience to our players on different distribution platforms. For example, in the olden days, only Steam users would get mods support for our PDS titles. With the launcher integrating PDX Mods, this can be made available to all players without the game team having to make any significant changes to the game itself.
What are the future plans?
With a team dedicated to launcher functionality, we have the capacity to develop features that individual game teams could not justify the cost of. We are currently focusing on the modding functionality, and exposing capabilities built into Paradox Mods. Essentially, our current priority is to make it easier for our players to use and manage their mods.
Isn’t it some form of DRM?
Nope. It does no kind of Digital Rights Management and will not prevent access to any content.
Is it tied to telemetrics or data tracking?
The launcher uses telemetry in the same way as all of our games do. It is covered by the same privacy policy (see our EULA), and abides by the GDPR rules for all users. So, no change tied to the launcher there, it’s the same policies and agreements that were already in place for all of our games.
What games are going to get the launcher?
Most of our upcoming PC titles will have the launcher. It will also be introduced for a selection of our existing titles, prioritizing those that can benefit the most from its features.
How does this relate to the “Paradox Launcher” found at play.paradoxplaza.com?
Ahhh! Nothing quite like a confusing naming scheme! The Paradox Launcher found at play.paradoxplaza.com is our “Distribution Client”, something similar to the Steam Client if you will. This client development has been on the back burner for some time while the team has been focused on the “splash screen” launcher you are probably here to read about.
In a not too far off future (we hope), these two functions - splash screen and distribution client - will be consolidated for those of our customers who choose to play through the PDX Distribution system. Other users shouldn’t notice any change from the current situation, though.
So what are all these features then?
The launcher does a number of things, it’s kind of our swiss-army-knife for Paradox games! Not all games necessarily have all of those features implemented yet, but I’ll give you a shortlist of fun stuff!
- GDPR compliance
- Login and account creation
- Single-sign-on with distribution platform (Steam, Microsoft, more in the pipeline)
- Account connection (Steam, Microsoft, more in the pipeline)
- Resume from last session
- DLC activation / deactivation
- Mods installation (For all non-steam users)
- Mods management
- Load order
- Activation / deactivation
- Mods upload (Steam Workshop, PDX Mods)
- Game settings (typically settings that would require a restart of the game)
That’s it folks. Hope it answers some of your questions, but if you have more, feel free to ask in the thread!
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