Paradox Interactive - do you want to buy some razor blade cartridges? - by EvaUnit02
EvaUnit02 on 12/2/2018 at 14:03
I've noticed that Paradox Interactive lately have become the Gillette/Schick of the games publishing world. I.e. they'll sell their core games for dirt cheap but will charge top dollar for DLCs, even ones that are a good number of years old. The razor business sells their razor blade handles for dirt cheap, but they charge you a pretty penny for the refill razor blade cartridges.
They weren't always like this. I remember some years ago you could buy the likes of Crusader Kings 2 DLC in compilation packs at heavy discount during Steam sales and the like.
Their value propositions of these Paradox DLCs are often debatable. It's not uncommon to see "mixed" as for the overall review averages on the Steam store pages and they're often asking $15+ for what typically amounts to a bunch of new units/building/etc and cosmetic appearance changes for gameplay features which are often patched into the game for free anyway.
demagogue on 12/2/2018 at 15:56
One corollary to that is that they don't sell new handles as often, also. They dropped one of my more anticipated WIP games (East vs. West) and haven't made a new version of my favorite Paradox Game in almost a decade (Victoria 2, released in 2009), but they've been churning out the DLC. They're a unique studio/publisher, and kind of unique in their model, which has made player loyalty a thing (so far), so I guess they can get away with it.
Pyrian on 12/2/2018 at 16:56
Hasn't the whole industry moved in that direction? Ever since "free" games started making more money than paid titles, anyway. Now everyone's looking to get more revenue from DLC content, big and small.
WingedKagouti on 12/2/2018 at 20:12
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Now everyone's looking to get more revenue from DLC content, big and small.
And lootboxes/booster packs (for ccgs), xp boosters (for progression based games), ingame cash/premium currencies and basically any other way they can get people to pay the most amount of money for the least amount of work.
This method does help the longevity of (some) games, but not every game where this is attempted is well suited for that kind of thing. And the agressiveness of pushing these extra monetization options can vary a lot. But for most Paradox titles, the DLC packages seem a lot more optional than what you'd find elsewhere. Even if there are a lot of DLC for any of their games that support it.
EvaUnit02 on 12/2/2018 at 21:26
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Hasn't the whole industry moved in that direction? Ever since "free" games started making more money than paid titles, anyway. Now everyone's looking to get more revenue from DLC content, big and small.
No, very much no.
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcebekI9F7g) Jim Sterling's latest video essay is on that very topic actually. The AAA gaming industry are trying "have their cake and eat it too", by having all of the DLCs, season passes and micro-transactions on top of still charging $60 USD for new games. Paradox games on the other hand are on semi-regular heavy digital discount sales, they're often practically giving away their base games. Eg I got Cities Skylines in a Humble Bundle last year. Hence my razor blade cartridge analogy in the OP.
demagogue on 12/2/2018 at 23:05
Actually I noticed on the day you posted this, looking at my Steam wishlist, Cities Skylines was the only one on sale and it was 75% off, and I was wondering why that was.
WingedKagouti on 13/2/2018 at 09:14
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Paradox games on the other hand are on semi-regular heavy digital discount sales, they're often practically giving away their base games.
But (almost) never close the launch date of the base game. I can't think of a major Paradox title that was over 50% off within about a year of the launch.
