After the success with the Crusader Kings III: Chapter III season pass, Paradox have decided to give the same treatment to Stellaris with Stellaris: Season 08. We also have a new trailer and release date for Stellaris: The Machine Age.
Basically Stellaris: Season 08 will include Stellaris: The Machine Age, Stellaris: Cosmic Storms and Stellaris: The Grand Archive Story Pack for one single purchase. Plus you also get a Rick The Cube Species Portrait instantly when purchasing. Speaking about it they said "There’s a chance that we might experiment with some other ideas that might or might not come out later this year, but Stellaris: Season 08 will include all of the major releases of 2024."
Stellaris: The Machine Age was also confirmed for release on May 7th with a new trailer:
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
Direct Link
More about each upcoming addition:
- Stellaris: The Machine Age (Releases May 7 2024) - Explore the Cyberpunk Fantasies of technological augmentation and digitalization of consciousness by expanding the possibilities offered in game by the Cybernetics and Synthetics Ascension. Address the moral and social challenges that communing with the machine bring to your space-faring empire, and face a new threat looming over the galaxy… or become a new threat yourself, as you tear through time and space to shape reality to your image
- Stellaris: Cosmic Storms (Releases Q3 2024) - A new phenomenon has been observed around the Galaxy - storms are sweeping through system. Prepare your Empire and brace to face this new upcoming threat, and leverage possibilities that open when your opponents are weakened by it.
- Stellaris: The Grand Archive Story Pack (Releases Q4 2024) - The Galaxy is vast and full of wonders, and it is up to you to store records of all the unique lifeforms and marvels you will meet. Build a new megastructure, and collect examples of specimens you will meet in your space-faring adventures!
This expansion pass will be available via Steam and buying it gives you around a 20% overall discount versus buying each of them individually. More on that in their developer diary. You can buy Stellaris from:
It has Native Linux support.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
13 comments
First you give us the money. Then maybe we give you a DLC. And if we do, maybe it's not broken beyond playability. 
This hobby is seriously getting sick.
Why is financing games is so difficult once a company goes public it's not that easy to understand for the end user. Develop, release, get good reviews and have people buy the game worked fine for decades and made this hobby great. I really don't feel the need to change the winning formula. Sorry PDX, but I'm out.
This hobby is seriously getting sick.
Why is financing games is so difficult once a company goes public it's not that easy to understand for the end user. Develop, release, get good reviews and have people buy the game worked fine for decades and made this hobby great. I really don't feel the need to change the winning formula. Sorry PDX, but I'm out.
1 Likes, Who?
They need to give us the new "core engine - now we'll actually make your 8-core system break a sweat" edition before I give Stellaris any more money. These DLCs are just more lipstick on a pig. It's one thing if my GPU and CPU and RAM were maxed out and it ran like a pig, but they're mostly idle and by late mid-game on anything above a medium galaxy it's just a chug fest.
0 Likes
Paradox just keeps getting worse over time. I'm pretty uninterested in supporting anything by them at this point.
Just recently they released the Lamplighters League by one of my fav dev's, but forced day 1 content based dlc (which means instantly I'll never buy it) and then abandoned the entire game and laid off the entire studio.
Then they released the star trek grand strategy game in a beyond broken unplayable state. Which is really incredible since they had Stellaris to go off of. Then they abandoned it as well.
So now I guess they're just going back to their cash cow: dlc for stellaris. What is the total cost of buying the game with all expansions in 2024? Like $200 or something insane?
Just recently they released the Lamplighters League by one of my fav dev's, but forced day 1 content based dlc (which means instantly I'll never buy it) and then abandoned the entire game and laid off the entire studio.
Then they released the star trek grand strategy game in a beyond broken unplayable state. Which is really incredible since they had Stellaris to go off of. Then they abandoned it as well.
So now I guess they're just going back to their cash cow: dlc for stellaris. What is the total cost of buying the game with all expansions in 2024? Like $200 or something insane?
0 Likes
So now I guess they're just going back to their cash cow: dlc for stellaris. What is the total cost of buying the game with all expansions in 2024? Like $200 or something insane?
Haha, optimist. More than double. Figuring out all this DLC stuff feels like work to me. I'll just skip it and go play something else. It's not like I have a shortage of games to dump my time in.
2 Likes, Who?
So now I guess they're just going back to their cash cow: dlc for stellaris. What is the total cost of buying the game with all expansions in 2024? Like $200 or something insane?
Haha, optimist. More than double. Figuring out all this DLC stuff feels like work to me. I'll just skip it and go play something else. It's not like I have a shortage of games to dump my time in.
HOLY SHITBALLS - I thought you might be joking ... but you aren't!!! It's OVER $400 if you buy the game and all expansions.
$40 base game
$372 dlc
---
$412 total
WHAT. THE. HELL.
3 Likes, Who?
Lot of hate here about the usual complaint. If the average DLC gets you back in the game and results in you playing a game you enjoy for longer than you play a typical full game you buy, then it's reasonable value for money. I don't put a lot of hours into most games. I put a LOT of hours into games like Stellaris or Civ. So I don't squall too much about the DLCs costing money.
In any case, Stellaris is pretty dashed good with the DLCs I have. I'm not certain it would be good with zero DLCs, but it only takes a few. I have no need to buy new ones unless they're particularly compelling, and nobody is forcing me to. So the whole "but you have to pay for ALLLL of them" thing I don't find persuasive. It gets even less persuasive when the same people often bitch that the DLCs are individually not much use, because if so there's obviously no need to buy them and you should just play the base game plus a couple of the best DLCs, in which case obviously the huge-price-tag-for-game-plus-all-DLCs-including-soundtracks-and-shit is irrelevant. The DLCs can either be necessary or useless, they can't be both.
Anyway I don't really see a Stellaris replacement out there, and I want to play something like Stellaris. There are ten thousand FPS out there, gajillions of platformers, hundreds of puzzle games and so on . . . serious big scale grand strategy science fiction 4X? Right now there is one. Well, one that's any good, there might be one or two others but . . . not really. Which means it must be pretty hard to do, so I'm a bit forgiving of engine issues, and also means I got nowhere to go if I decide to get pissy over not much.
I do agree that what Paradox did with Lamplighters League sucked.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 15 April 2024 at 7:09 pm UTC
In any case, Stellaris is pretty dashed good with the DLCs I have. I'm not certain it would be good with zero DLCs, but it only takes a few. I have no need to buy new ones unless they're particularly compelling, and nobody is forcing me to. So the whole "but you have to pay for ALLLL of them" thing I don't find persuasive. It gets even less persuasive when the same people often bitch that the DLCs are individually not much use, because if so there's obviously no need to buy them and you should just play the base game plus a couple of the best DLCs, in which case obviously the huge-price-tag-for-game-plus-all-DLCs-including-soundtracks-and-shit is irrelevant. The DLCs can either be necessary or useless, they can't be both.
Anyway I don't really see a Stellaris replacement out there, and I want to play something like Stellaris. There are ten thousand FPS out there, gajillions of platformers, hundreds of puzzle games and so on . . . serious big scale grand strategy science fiction 4X? Right now there is one. Well, one that's any good, there might be one or two others but . . . not really. Which means it must be pretty hard to do, so I'm a bit forgiving of engine issues, and also means I got nowhere to go if I decide to get pissy over not much.
I do agree that what Paradox did with Lamplighters League sucked.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 15 April 2024 at 7:09 pm UTC
6 Likes, Who?
Philadelphus Apr 15
Bought the Season Pass for the discount since I'll end up buying it all anyway, and the additional information on The Grand Archive story packs sounds like it's exactly what I've been wanting in the game for literal years now: an expansion of lifeforms that aren't sapient species, and the ability to go around cataloging them and creating a galactic zoo.
Plus the new crisis in The Machine Age sounds pretty interesting, now I've finally experienced all three original crises after >600 hours in-game.
Plus the new crisis in The Machine Age sounds pretty interesting, now I've finally experienced all three original crises after >600 hours in-game.
2 Likes, Who?
What is it that drives people so mad about the DLC policy of PDX, i really don't get it. Noone is forcing you to buy one of them, if you don't feel like it. If you wait just a while, they are usually on 50% discount after 2 years, and on rare occasions they appear in a humble bundle for even more. I wait for a new Humble Bundle for EU4 for a while now and i really have high hopes, since EU5 is at the horizon. For Stellaris i dont wait at all, since the base game + a hand full DLC grabbed in a bundle + free content updates is more than enough content for me at the moment.
You have to chill out on your FOMO.
You have to chill out on your FOMO.
2 Likes, Who?
Stellaris, the base game, is actually really good by itself. The DLC are all optional extras. The base game is often ridiculously cheap too, as are plenty of the DLC.
1 Likes, Who?
My issue is not with the DLCs. It's with the renovated push toward pre order, be it with season pass, or subscription or exclusive content. And then there is the annoying thing of pricing, with real prices only being accessible during sales, and new player accessibility even if with real prices.
And this is first because they are a large company now with large shoulders and they don't need cash in advance. Second because they already proved to be more than ready to slash quality in order to shorten delivery cicles and grab quick cash. Their games to often becomes broken with a patch, and this monetization strategy only incentivizes them to continue with this bad behaviour.
To be clear, quality issues weren't to big of a deal in the past, just annoying. They broke the game to release quickly, you roll back to previous patch, and once they figure their shit out, you buy the DLC and play on new patch. I've done it for years and lived happy. Only those who gave in to commercials and bought the DLC blindly would rage out. Then if they took a year to fix it I waited a year and buy the DLC discounted. Everyone was incentized to do things right to maximize both fun and revenues. Classic vote with wallet. But I guess some higherup were not happy with that.
So now with season pass (or subscription, or pre order, whatever) it turns out you already bought something you cannot play. Or that is not fun to play. And since your money is alredy theirs, and they are very russian on their forums when it comes to complaints, the players are only left with venting out with bad reviews on Steam (which is not nice for obvious reasons). Sure with this they get their shareholders happy in the short term. But in the long term is not good for the games (I guess some whitecollar will think that it's not an issue: whe the reputation of the game is broken beyong repeair they will just release Stellaris2 and start over).
If you really like those games, you should understand that it's important to reward them with a purchase only when they do things right (which they are also capable of doing and did many times over), not to buy blindly. They don't deserve that. And you also.
And this is first because they are a large company now with large shoulders and they don't need cash in advance. Second because they already proved to be more than ready to slash quality in order to shorten delivery cicles and grab quick cash. Their games to often becomes broken with a patch, and this monetization strategy only incentivizes them to continue with this bad behaviour.
To be clear, quality issues weren't to big of a deal in the past, just annoying. They broke the game to release quickly, you roll back to previous patch, and once they figure their shit out, you buy the DLC and play on new patch. I've done it for years and lived happy. Only those who gave in to commercials and bought the DLC blindly would rage out. Then if they took a year to fix it I waited a year and buy the DLC discounted. Everyone was incentized to do things right to maximize both fun and revenues. Classic vote with wallet. But I guess some higherup were not happy with that.
So now with season pass (or subscription, or pre order, whatever) it turns out you already bought something you cannot play. Or that is not fun to play. And since your money is alredy theirs, and they are very russian on their forums when it comes to complaints, the players are only left with venting out with bad reviews on Steam (which is not nice for obvious reasons). Sure with this they get their shareholders happy in the short term. But in the long term is not good for the games (I guess some whitecollar will think that it's not an issue: whe the reputation of the game is broken beyong repeair they will just release Stellaris2 and start over).
If you really like those games, you should understand that it's important to reward them with a purchase only when they do things right (which they are also capable of doing and did many times over), not to buy blindly. They don't deserve that. And you also.
1 Likes, Who?
Anyway I don't really see a Stellaris replacement out there, and I want to play something like Stellaris. There are ten thousand FPS out there, gajillions of platformers, hundreds of puzzle games and so on . . . serious big scale grand strategy science fiction 4X? Right now there is one. Well, one that's any good, there might be one or two others but . . . not really. Which means it must be pretty hard to do, so I'm a bit forgiving of engine issues, and also means I got nowhere to go if I decide to get pissy over not much.Just a maze-chase fan cruising by to say that I totally get what you mean here - some genres just don't have a lot of options!
2 Likes, Who?
Philadelphus Apr 17
$40 base gameI don't understand this mentality in PC gaming as-a-hobby that there's some magic upper limit to what's acceptable to spend on a single game. If I have $400 dollars of disposable income that I want to spend on gaming, it's totally fine for me to buy 15 $20-$60 games; we'll all share nervous laughs about the state of our unplayed backlogs, and several of them will sit unplayed in my library forever or I'll play them for an hour or two and discover I don't enjoy them. But spend that same $400 on a single game that I really enjoy and have gotten over 675 hours of entertainment from? Expressions of incredulity and disbelief!
$372 dlc
---
$412 total
WHAT. THE. HELL.
And it's so strange, because it's not like this happens in other hobbies. Those people who make model train sets that fill their basements, they don't start making a model, get to spending a hundred dollars on it, and go, "Oh, guess I couldn't possibly keep on expanding and improving this one! Gotta start over with a brand new model now!" In lots of hobbies people barely bat an eye at spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a single piece of equipment, but a game with optional extras that adds up to more than $150 dollars? Burn those greedy money-grubbing devs!
I could understand this better if Stellaris was only ever sold as a full bundle for full price and you couldn't even get into the game otherwise, and if this were the norm for all games with no cheaper games available, but neither are the case here: Stellaris goes for $40, and regularly discounts to $20, which will still give you dozens or hundreds of hours of fun. I also don't see $10, $20, etc. games going anywhere, there'll always be plenty of cheaper options around if you fancy them instead. If the combined cost of Stellaris + DLC is not worth it, in your personal estimation, that's fine – Paradox is hardly immune from criticism, and have made their share of blunders, and people have different tastes – but articles on their games inevitably seem to devolve into this sort of "Because I, personally, don't find it a worthwhile deal, it can't possibly be a good deal for anyone" nay-saying. I don't play any sort of subscription-based MMO (for various reasons), but I also don't go around loudly scoffing at how World of Warcraft costs $156 per year (at the best rate) because I assume the people who are playing it are getting their money's worth of entertainment from it.
People who are serious about their hobbies are prepared to pay serious money. (As even a cursory glance at hobbies outside gaming will attest.) Everyone has a different limit on what they're prepared (or able) to spend, and that's fine, as long as we respect those differences, and I think it's time we stop artificially limiting individual games to how much we think they should be allowed to cost – that's what the free market's about, after all, a game can only be sold for what people will pay for it.
4 Likes, Who?
Looks like it will be the first Stellaris DLC I won't buy on release. IDK, I guess I'm a bit tired of the game? But I'm happy that now they are outlining their plans for the whole year in advance - and now I know that I have some interest for Cosmic Storms DLC and a lot of interest for The Grand Archive DLC. So I already have plans to return to the game later - autumn or winter sale will probably be a good time...
:).
:).
2 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me