Imperator: Rome - Status Update (Apr 2021)

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Rossigil

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people need to stop ragging on johan. He has made good games. He has made not so good games. He is neither a saint nor a devil. He's just a dude passionate about grand strategy games.

Also I am almost entirely certain he is working on eu5 right now
Do you think that he was in charge of controversial Emperor DLC, disastrous Leviathan DLC and theoretical EU5 at the same time? So, it may explain why he failed to keep EU4 DLCs in good shape at launch.

Or do you imply that Paradox moved the game director of controversial Emperor DLC and disastrous Leviathan DLC to take charge of theoretical EU5? Very bright decision.
 
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weezl

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Here here! Give us Imperator back or the sad emoji.

I wonder if we borrowed enough money buying houses with negative interest rates if we could afford more devs and keep Imperator alive? <--- Makes about as much sense as a studio killing their best long-term potential game just as it overcame its troubled infancy and began to show real promise.

I think you are getting ahead of yourself here..

"killing their best long-term potential game"

I'm absolutely sure you have no data to back up this assertion. I can certainly believe you like the game and feel this of it.. but all products in the marketplace are subject to the vagaries of desire/need. None of us sitting on the outside have ANY idea how many folks really want to play IR.. if sales don't add up to continued profit for the stream of development for that game and its ongoing costs, no matter how devoted a small fanbase is that fanbase is still small and unprofitable.

I realize this isn't what anyone wants to hear, but it is the cold/hard truth. It is VERY easy to let your own desires bleed into a judgement about reality in general... since those desires actual cripple the ability to be objective.

I for one feel for the developers being moved. I'm sure they put their heart and soul into the original game, and the effort to make it better with 2.0.. now business realities have caught up with them. That is life in any business.. but especially in software, which is such an expensive activity to begin with.
 
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weezl

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I didnt expect that, especially after reading the latest annual report by the CEO - how its not only about profit (which has steadily been rising in the previous years) but about building individual game brands, fanbases of particularly games that will bring in long term profits through DLCs and sequels to the company (or something like it). Reading those words, I saw I:R in them, reasuring me that they will continue developing it.

I have never been disrespectfull on these forums, but what I feel now is the closest I ever was. I really wanna be disrespectfull towards the corporates of PDX. It is true, many other companies would abandon a failed release like I:R was within a few months, and we have to give it to PDX that they supported this till it really improved thanks to a passionate dev team. But thats not enough. We expect more.

I doubt PDX was loosing money on I:R, its just that they want to focus on their big guns - easy money. Its a bit hipocritical to write about something in the annual report (I described above) and then do the opposite. Well as a socialist I can just say F***f capitalism, the company is owned by members of a class whoose interests are not aligned with those of the PDS workers or consumers and thats it. Marxism 101. So PDS employees unite!, seaze the means of game development! :p

First two paragraphs.. I can understand.

Last paragraph, you've departed reality. 1) you don't know if they ever made money on it or not. That would require you to know their internal development costs + their detailed sales and marketing numbers, and I'm absolutely sure you have access to none of that. Which means you are hypothesizing without ANY knowledge AT ALL.. and I can come up with other scenarios that explain what happened and still have your assumption be false.

When you make judgements based on half baked thinking, don't be surprised when reality hits you in the head.
 
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weezl

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Shame. Poor IR was always judged too harshly imo, it had a Rocky launch but it was never really in an unplayable or game breaking state. It quickly became very good with some updates. It aged like wine and became better and better with every update. Right now it's one my favorite modern PDX games.

I think it's in good shape right now but I was hoping for more region specific flavor.

From a business perspective I fully understand the devs decision. Good luck with your next projects!

This echoes my sentiments exactly.
 
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Shadout123

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I don´t blame them for their business decision but for me PDX had an image, that they keep supporting/developing the game. And that image they had they crushed for me
 
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Spartanlemur

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I don´t blame them for their business decision but for me PDX had an image, that they keep supporting/developing the game. And that image they had they crushed for me

I don't really see how it's a good business decision to let down your customers in this way. Short-term it might pay off, but long-term, it's a bad strategy.

After a disastrous launch like Imperator had, the No Man's Sky treatment was warranted.
 
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ThrashingLikeAManiac

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That's a fancy post to say: "we're abandoning this game".

The corporate decisions made by this publisher baffle me. You had the perfect ground work finally laid out to easily develop content and charge for it for the next 5+ years. 2.0 was a great step at finally delivering what should've been the 'base game' (it's really fun).

Nail meet coffin. Not buying from PDX again.
 
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sr999

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Hi all, Arheo here.

As mentioned above, many of the faces you've become used to seeing in relation to Imperator will be moving on to utilise their talent in support of new projects.

2.0 was, and will remain a seminal moment in Imperator's history. The reception from the players has been overwhelming, and we are beyond proud of what the team has accomplished.

I will also be joining the team in their exodus to projects various, so I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the I:R team, our community and fans for crafting Imperator into a strong, unique element in the PDS repertoire.

I have confidence that Imperator will continue to grow towards the vision we created for it, and I will continue to be present both here and elsewhere for further conversation regarding the best PDS game ;)

/Peter
When I saw this just now I noticed there were 314 "angry", 55 "helpful", and just 12 "like" reponses.

I think the best (as well as healthiest!) way to interpret this is "please continue working on this fantastic game". :)
(EDIT: for avoidance of doubt, I mean this sincerely - I am NOT trying to be "toxic" or otherwise negative in any way)
 
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When I saw this just now I noticed there were 314 "angry", 55 "helpful", and just 12 "like" reponses.

I think the best (as well as healthiest!) way to interpret this is "please continue working on this fantastic game". :)
Angry is the next to best emoticon for sadness. We do not get this emotion on the forums, nor the confused one. They are sorely needed.
 
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LiberiusX

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Victoria 3 freaking confirmed!
 
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LiberiusX

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I understand that, but also we're a growing company, with a lot of active projects and sometimes you need to take a step back and re-evaluate how things are going and what you are focusing your efforts on. We want to do everything, but the reality is, we can't.

We don't even have the luxury of handing things off to other studios, we have to build those studios because very few other companies make strategy games and almost none of them make GSGs like us. These aren't FPS games where there hundreds of experienced studios waiting for work.

And based on where we are at now and what we are working on, we need the talented people that have done a great job on Imperator, to work on other projects at PDS. As I said in the original post too, this decision was taken awhile ago, so it isn't a reaction to anything that has been released this year.
you’ve got to read between the lines. Vicky 3 will be an FPS. It’s going to be Ahhhmazing
 
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Rossigil

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After a disastrous launch like Imperator had, the No Man's Sky treatment was warranted.
But No Man's Sky made A LOT of money. We are lucky that developers did not retire to live happily on paradise islands, but began to polish the game and eventually led it to nowadays continuous success after years of hard work.

Arheo and his team made a miracle to revive I:R after disastrous launch. We are lucky that the game wasn't abandoned right after it at all
 
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