Imperator: Rome - Status Update (Apr 2021)

[Imperator Yggdrasil]

I'm a little disappointed to see Imperator getting put on the back burner, but I understand why Paradox needs experienced team members on other projects. Following up on the 2.0 patch will be a good starting task for a new team and I wish PDX the best of luck finding talented hires for the job.

 

[Wokky]

Well this is incredibly disappointing news but perhaps not entirely surprising considering the issues at launch, the work needed to fix and improve the game over the last 2 years and the other issues that PDX seems to be experiencing at the moment. Its still a big blow though for those of us that stuck with it expecting the long term support that PDX is famed for. I hope that this game either gets supported again at a later date or a sequal gets announced (my preferred option tbh, fresh start etc.) but im not going to hold my breath for either option at this stage, just look at how long it took for us to get another Rome game after all.

Maybe as a sign of good faith PDX could open up more of this game to modders to help keep it alive, just a thought.

 

[Vahnstad]

Honestly, i'm going to be very honest. I have good hopes this would turn out into a great game, but right now i didn't had the funds (although there were some opportunities to buy it cheaply), and more importantly the time to play it. The negative reviews also made me hesistant to buy this game in this state, but I had all hope that this game would turn out to be great after a few updates and the tons of DLC.

Perhaps what happened is that there are many people like me, that know PI will create a lot of post-content for the game (this is their model and they work through such a sense), but I literally can't afford to pay 20 euro's for each DLC they create that changes only a few things, while I could buy a brand new game with it.

But there are a lot of sales, and when the game is entirely created or mostly created, yeah sure, the price of 100 euro's is certainly worth it than, but if you have a base game of 40 to 60 euro's (not sure), and get 10 DLC's and 3 Immersion packs, you'll basically pay around 230 euro's if you pay everything on release. I know there a lot of sales if you wait a bit, especially the basegame is easily to get cheaply after a while, but people know this, and i think the potential userbase was going to be huge, but if everyone is doing the same thing as me, than you get this. And that's unfortunate, but I just cannot support the developers the way I want to because I know the potential is huge, but right now for the developers this game is just probably not worth fixing anymore (or at least anytime soon).

Correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Honestly, i'm going to be very honest. I have good hopes this would turn out into a great game, but right now i didn't had the funds (although there were some opportunities to buy it cheaply), and more importantly the time to play it. The negative reviews also made me hesistant to buy this game in this state, but I had all hope that this game would turn out to be great after a few updates and the tons of DLC.

Perhaps what happened is that there are many people like me, that know PI will create a lot of post-content for the game (this is their model and they work through such a sense), but I literally can't afford to pay 20 euro's for each DLC they create that changes only a few things, while I could buy a brand new game with it.

But there are a lot of sales, and when the game is entirely created or mostly created, yeah sure, the price of 100 euro's is certainly worth it than, but if you have a base game of 40 to 60 euro's (not sure), and get 10 DLC's and 3 Immersion packs, you'll basically pay around 230 euro's if you pay everything on release. I know there a lot of sales if you wait a bit, especially the basegame is easily to get cheaply after a while, but people know this, and i think the potential userbase was going to be huge, but if everyone is doing the same thing as me, than you get this. And that's unfortunate, but I just cannot support the developers the way I want to because I know the potential is huge, but right now for the developers this game is just probably not worth fixing anymore (or at least anytime soon).

Correct me if i'm wrong.

Good point, this is the self-fulfilling profecy conundrum.

Your game does not sell well because we know it will need more time to evolve to something worth it, but you do not develop it because the game does not sell well.

This way, only iterations of existing franchises will be succesful, if at all. New games will be doomed.

 

[CPU Taro]

Your game does not sell well because we know it will need more time to evolve to something worth it, but you do not develop it because the game does not sell well.

I thought they said Imperator was a commercial success, though?

Can't remember which dev I read that from, but did find this from when the game launched: Imperator: Rome beats sales targets despite “lower user ratings than expected” (PCGamesN),

“So far Imperator: Rome has exceeded our sales targets,” Paradox CEO Ebba Ljungerud says as part of prepared statements alongside the company’s first quarter financial report. “Gaming press reviews have been very positive, however, we see lower user ratings than expected on Steam. We take this seriously; the game team is working on analyzing these reviews and reviewing their planned roadmap with them in mind.”

[...] Exactly what shape the “planned roadmap” Ljungerud mentions will take remains to be seen, but the Paradox boss adds “This is, in many ways, business as usual for us – our game development is always in close harmony with our players and we are extremely grateful for all the feedback on how we can make the game better.”

The phrase 'business as usual' stands out.

At the very least, I think the comparisons people make over Steam's concurrent player numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Unlike say, EU4, Imperator was not only released on GOG and the Microsoft Store, but also put on the Xbox Game Pass.

 

[Inochi]

PDS has THREE projects in current developement, one of which might be revealed these days, aside of the ongoing developement of the older projects. Imperator: Rome is the one that got the crunch stick to help the other project for now. That's just what happened. That doesn't mean it got shelved permanently.

While I doubt one of the three new phantom projects is Victoria III (a long harbored wish of the community), whatever they do make, might be in a bad phase due to production bottlenecks, Covid etc.

Imperator:Rome has recently finished their major update and fixed (most) of the bugs. Not all mind you. Contrary EU IV Leviathan can NOT spare resources, it released a buggy mess and already had too little resources to prevent this PR disaster.

They took the workforce for the final phase of phantom project one from a game with mostly stable enviroments and after a major patch release. This is a very reasonable approach. I see no fault with the management here.

 

[zorkman]

I thought they said Imperator was a commercial success, though?

Can't remember which dev I read that from, but did find this from when the game launched: Imperator: Rome beats sales targets despite “lower user ratings than expected” (PCGamesN),



The phrase 'business as usual' stands out.

At the very least, I think the comparisons people make over Steam's concurrent player numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Unlike say, EU4, Imperator was not only released on GOG and the Microsoft Store, but also put on the Xbox Game Pass.

You are right in that the game sold very well, & if it had been released 10 years, it would have been seen as a great success. Problem is, now Paradox make most of its money on DLC'S after release, & this is where this game has been disasterous due to the poor reception & game content initially, added to constant small player numbers, which has virtually killed the game.

You mention that player numbers should be taken with a grain of salt due to being released under other sources, compared to EU4. What you don't mention is the player numbers on Steam are constantly below the ancient Victoria II, which wasn't even released on Steam initially.

 

[Godd_Howard]

PDS has THREE projects in current developement, one of which might be revealed these days, aside of the ongoing developement of the older projects. Imperator: Rome is the one that got the crunch stick to help the other project for now. That's just what happened. That doesn't mean it got shelved permanently.

While I doubt one of the three new phantom projects is Victoria III (a long harbored wish of the community), whatever they do make, might be in a bad phase due to production bottlenecks, Covid etc.

Imperator:Rome has recently finished their major update and fixed (most) of the bugs. Not all mind you. Contrary EU IV Leviathan can NOT spare resources, it released a buggy mess and already had too little resources to prevent this PR disaster.

They took the workforce for the final phase of phantom project one from a game with mostly stable enviroments and after a major patch release. This is a very reasonable approach. I see no fault with the management here.

Can't say I'm looking forward to the new game, whatever it is. After EU4 Leviathan, Imperator getting the boot and CK3 being a 'meh' I don't care enough to get into buying something new.

 

[CPU Taro]

Imperator:Rome has recently finished their major update and fixed (most) of the bugs. Not all mind you. Contrary EU IV Leviathan can NOT spare resources, it released a buggy mess and already had too little resources to prevent this PR disaster.

They took the workforce for the final phase of phantom project one from a game with mostly stable enviroments and after a major patch release. This is a very reasonable approach. I see no fault with the management here.

I understand the thinking behind it alright, but in failing to give more definite assurances that development will be resumed, it's naturally going to make people pause over giving Paradox more money for new releases, especially new IPs. Whether it's their fault on not - given community expectation - this has rather recklessly undone a lot of goodwill that was being fostered by Arheo and the team's work. Self-fulfilling prophecies are all too easy to invoke. :/

I really hope it is just a break in development, and not something more permanent. It's not that I think they haven't done the release price justice, but I didn't buy all the DLC on release with the expectation that the game would end up being cancelled right after a patch that arguably made it their best work in terms of game mechanics.

 

[Godd_Howard]

I didn't buy all the DLC on release with the expectation that it the game would end up being cancelled right after a patch that arguably made it their best work in terms of game mechanics.

Another one of those comments I want to print out and put it on Paradox HQ doors like I'm Martin Luther.

 

[brajalle]

I still feel burned by Sengoku. That being said, with Battletech and Imperator I feel like things were at least evolved to a decent state and the communication was pretty good. Kudos on that. Hope you guys are able to come back to Imperator, but at least you're doing a good job of letting us know where it's at.

 

[Inochi]

I hope you got all 95 comments needed for the Swedish PDX reformation.

 

[Godd_Howard]

I still feel burned by Sengoku. That being said, with Battletech and Imperator I feel like things were at least evolved to a decent state and the communication was pretty good. Kudos on that. Hope you guys are able to come back to Imperator, but at least you're doing a good job of letting us know where it's at.

I didn't get Sengoku on release since I wasn't into theese games at the time. But that setting has SO MUCH potential it's a crime they have not made it into a good game. If anything they should use CK2 as a base to build a "new" game set in Japan. I would actually buy that.

 

[CPU Taro]

Another one of those comments I want to print out and put it on Paradox HQ doors like I'm Martin Luther.

I really don't mean it as though I'm writing off their games forever or anything. I didn't buy their DLC with the notion that they owed me anything further, but it does dampen my confidence that a game will see long-term, extended support, just because Paradox makes it.

Put simply, it just reduces my trust in the longevity of Paradox products, which has been an area they excel in.

 

[Dnote]

I didn't get Sengoku on release since I wasn't into theese games at the time. But that setting has SO MUCH potential it's a crime they have not made it into a good game. If anything they should use CK2 as a base to build a "new" game set in Japan. I would actually buy that.

I would love to tackle Japan, Korea, China and the Indochina region in new games. But to do them justice I believe we need to have people on the team from those regions to bring their cultural perspective to the design and content.

I really don't mean it as though I'm writing off their games forever or anything. I didn't buy their DLC with the notion that they owed me anything further, but it does dampen my confidence that a game will see long-term, extended support, just because Paradox makes it.

Put simply, it just reduces my trust in the longevity of Paradox products, which has been an area they excel in.

We're not always going to get it right, talk to any of the large gaming companies and they will tell you there is significant risk with doing "new" games, because you don't know how well it is going to be received until you launch it. This isn't going to stop us from trying though, Imperator was an important step for us in understanding the challenge of creating new GSGs (most of Paradox wasn't around the last time a new one launched).

We have learned that we can grow the games, like we did in the past, but it requires a different approach to how we run an already large game and we've also learned some important lessons about how to develop and market for launch, for our next new game (whatever/whenever that might happen).

With the reorganization of the studio, we're also better placed to avoid the need to move people around between projects, which in the long run is going to offer a stability that we've struggled with in the past years and ultimately led to our decision to put Imperator on hold at the moment.

 

[Emberfox]

I would love to tackle Japan, Korea, China and the Indochina region in new games. But to do them justice I believe we need to have people on the team from those regions to bring their cultural perspective to the design and content.

I have to admit, I would prefer you would make a game in the age of the Han crisis to the Jin dynasty, instead of a sengoku game.
Nobunaga's Ambition is a series of pretty good grand strategy games, but Romance of Three Kingdoms is too much based on the book of the same name, instead of the actual history..

I for one would be interested in your take of those games - though I will compare you to Koeis GS games, of course.. =P

 

[Dnote]

I have to admit, I would prefer you would make a game in the age of the Han crisis to the Jin dynasty, instead of a sengoku game.
Nobunaga's Ambition is a series of pretty good grand strategy games, but Romance of Three Kingdoms is too much based on the book of the same name, instead of the actual history..

I for one would be interested in your take of those games - though I will compare you to Koeis GS games, of course.. =P

I think going from around 200 to 450 CE would cover a lot of interesting history. You would still need to lean heavily on the Three Kingdoms period for marketing, but having some of the time before and a fair bit of time after gives plenty of great events to use to drive the experience.

 

[Chehabian]

With the reorganization of the studio, we're also better placed to avoid the need to move people around between projects, which in the long run is going to offer a stability that we've struggled with in the past years and ultimately led to our decision to put Imperator on hold at the moment.

So I know people are not inclined to feel very confident given the state of things with Imperator's pause - but I will say that it does give me some degree of hope in that the internal reorganization of Paradox could potentially mean a return with perhaps a renewed vigor in the not so distant future.

Alas, this is just a feeling. But I do remain hopeful that they can produce.

Side note - does anybody really enjoy the hell out of the soundtrack for Imperator? Tyros & The Mediterranean are without a doubt my favorites.

 

[Godd_Howard]

Side note - does anybody really enjoy the hell out of the soundtrack for Imperator? Tyros & The Mediterranean are without a doubt my favorites.

Civil War and Carthago are a jam. PDX game soundtracks are bangers. I listen to them even outside the game.

 

[Nak'Arosh]

Side note - does anybody really enjoy the hell out of the soundtrack for Imperator? Tyros & The Mediterranean are without a doubt my favorites.

Just one music still good there that is 'The Siege', the rest is on a medium score.