Recently Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio put out a small update for Europa Universalis IV, initially saying it didn't really do much. However, after users did some digging, they had to release a statement about upcoming subscription plans.
Initially, the update notes said they were "running a few experiments aimed at reducing the threshold for new players to access the full EU4 experience" and that they didn't want to disclose what as it would "interfere with the test". Not long after the post, a user replied to show subscriptions mentioning a "monthly payment" for DLC access.
Paradox then ended up releasing a statement on it that "Yes, we want to test a subscription model for EU4" however to be very clear they also said they will not be "replacing the current model or changing how anything works now. We are simply adding another option". So you can either buy the DLC, or sub to perhaps access everything.
There's no getting around the fact that Paradox games end up with a lot of DLC. Looking at Europa Universalis IV, to buy all the DLC individually on Steam right now would cost around £254.94.
That's a pretty ridiculous sum. However, it does mean their games get supported and updated often with new free features for everyone for a long time after release. Still, it's a lot of extra content and quite intimidating for newer players and even plenty who've owned it a while and play it. That's who their target is with this of course, people interested but don't want to pay a big sum.
Full details of it haven't been released, their statement to clarify it only mentioned a limited amount of people will be given the option while they experiment with it and figure out things like the right cost. You can see their post about it on their official forum, along with the statement too.
What are your thoughts on their idea?
As a reminder, you can actually pick up Europa Universalis IV plus a ton of DLC super cheap in The Humble Europa Universalis IV Bundle.
Hat tip to Anastiel.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
What would be still hard for me to swallow in a subscription model is the feeling that I need to play the game a certain amount of time each month to validate the expense. Perhaps, I would play the game a lot for a couple months and then not that often, so I'd unsubscribe, never to play again, whereas maybe I'd play it a little more if there wasn't a paywall to start it up again.
One could surmise that the possible addition of a subscription model suggests continued development for the old game. It's not a must-be-true, but, you know, it likely is.
A subscription service is an interesting idea though, if it means you can try them out before buying outright. It all depends on the pricing, really.
Quoting: DuncA subscription service is an interesting idea though, if it means you can try them out before buying outright. It all depends on the pricing, really.
As said above, imagine you didn't follow the game grow, then you're sitting in front of a ridiculously long list of stuff and no idea what actualy are these "half-a-dozen “real”, game-altering, DLC packages" you might want. It's like you need to solve a puzzle before you are "allowed" to buy the game.
For me personally, that humble bundle was too good, I just picked it up with a stack of DLC.
Mountain Man Jan 23, 2020
Mountain Man Jan 23, 2020
Quoting: 14As someone who has thought about buying the game many times but hasn't yet, I can only agree that the DLC overload is daunting. I don't want to put that much research into the purchase of a video game.My suggestion to newcomers to Paradox games is don't worry about DLC until you've gotten comfortable with the base game, which offers a complete experience in and of itself. Only then should you look over the DLC and see which ones appeal to you and mesh with your play style.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 23 January 2020 at 5:38 pm UTC
I am unlikely to subscribe to game services, as I play very irregularly - a long time without playing, then one day on a whim I pick it up and play for a while. Even more so for strategy games, that aren't something I will finish the story or solve all the puzzles and be done with the game - so I really want to have the stuff "to keep forever" rather than rent it.
But in many cases, paying a subscription for a few months can be a much better cost-benefit. If you can take it when advantageous, but just buy it (for a reasonable price) when it is not, it would be ok. My main fear is that a lot of things are moving into subscriptions exclusively (or at least prioritizing it), because this gives companies much more control over people and what they have... and that is horrible.
Quoting: DuncI can never get particularly worked-up about Paradox's “DLC overload”, to be honest. The vast majority of it is cosmetic and can be easily ignored without affecting the quality of gameplay at allAs Eike noted, it's not necessarily the quantity in itself that's the problem - it's the Steam Store UI that really sucks for games with lots of DLC. Even just letting the developer group things into categories like "Cosmetic", "Extra mechanics", and "Country flavour" would help enormously IMO.
... They usually end up with maybe half-a-dozen “real”, game-altering, DLC packages over the course of several years
I thought the recent-ish DLC section of the store would help, but nobody seems to know what to do with the tags, so you end up with eg. all the EU4 DLC lumped into "Simulation" and "Strategy" rather than anything actually useful to potential customers.
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