You won’t find any paradox at foot when you examine why Sweden’s top game publisher is becoming the leader in the strategy game market.
Last week, Paradox Interactive acquired Triumph Studios, the designers of the Age of Wonders series. Already a top-tier maker of strategy games, Paradox now has a fourth studio to join an impressive lineup that includes games like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Hearts of Iron. And while I enjoy the Warlock series, it’s an average fantasy-strategy series at best. Adding the folks behind Age of Wonders makes for an intriguing future here for Warlock and fantasy at Paradox.
The strategy market is getting stronger as more publishers add to their stables. Last year, Sega acquired Amplitude Studios, the makers of the well-regarded Endless strategy series. Sega also has Total War designer The Creative Assembly, making it a formidable publisher on PC. You’ve also got Stardock, and its small fleet of studios, making some great strategy games such as Ashes of the Singularity, Galactic Civilizations III, and Offworld Trading Company.
It’s a bright time in PC gaming. We might be on the cusp of a radical shift in shooters thanks to Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, one we haven’t seen since 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Indie designers continue to push the boundaries of what games are and what they do. And continued rise of the esports industry keeps games such as Overwatch, League of Legends, and Hearthsone in the spotlight.
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From GamesBeat
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is the most important shooter since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds represents a paradigm shift in the shooter genre. Its thrilling last-man-standing multiplayer action has led to more than 4 million in sales, but it’s the breadth of its appeal that makes it so important to the future of gaming. Everyone is playing Battlegrounds. That’s hyperbole, but it doesn’t feel too far from the […]
RuneScape developer reflects on 15 years of making games
Few games from the turn of the century are still around. Sure, the Mario and Halo franchises are doing just fine, but they have done so through multiple sequels and expensive marketing budgets. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game RuneScape, however, has survived and thrived by helping to define the free-to-play business model and through […]
Blizzard has squandered the trust of Overwatch’s competitive teams
From a distance, it seems Blizzard has everything figured out with Overwatch. $1 billion in sales and 30 million players is a massive commercial and cultural success. Taking out the magnifying glass to examine Overwatch from a competitive gaming perspective tells a different story, however. Blizzard wants Overwatch to be a major esport, but so […]
Indie dev turns Wikipedia into a text adventure game
Like a lot of people, I’ve spent hours clicking from link to link, sucked into Wikipedia’s endless void of information. Indie dev Kevan Davis apparently has as well — except he came out on the other side with a game. Wikipedia: The Text Adventure is a free-to-play piece of interactive fiction that uses real entries […]
Get ready for serious games that improve your judgment
For years, video games have provided useful imitations of real-world scenarios. From flight simulations to military training, video games offer a low-risk environment to develop necessary experience. Now, a recent government intelligence program has taken that a step further, creating video games to improve cognitive skills. The recurrent errors in our decision-making In psychology, heuristics […]
Paradox Interactive acquires Age of Wonders dev Triumph Studios
Paradox Interactive is adding more talent to its stable of strategy developers. The company revealed today that it has acquired Triumph Studios, which is the team responsible for the turn-based strategy game Age of Wonders. Paradox also owns all of Triumph’s assets as well in a deal worth $4.5 million (4 million euros) with the […]
Beyond GamesBeat
Brexit Britain: League of Legends in-game currency gets UK price hike
League of Legends players in the UK will soon have to pay more for their Riot Points as a result of Brexit. Developer Riot Games yesterday revealed it’s been forced to raise the price by 20 percent due to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. (via Gamasutra)
How THQ Nordic will build a successful brand out of a failed one
When small but feisty publisher Nordic Games rebranded as THQ Nordic, many an industry eyebrow was raised. On the one hand, the firm had grabbed the world’s attention by acquiring the rights to franchises such as Darksiders and Red Faction, as well as countless others, and even picked up the THQ trademark. By why would you want to associate an up-and-coming publisher with those properties’ former owner, perhaps the most famous story of bankruptcy the games sector has seen in more than a decade? (via gamesindustry.biz)
Take beautiful screenshots with PC’s best built-in photo modes
There are countless ways to take beautiful screenshots of PC games, whether it’s typing in console commands, editing .ini files, using Cheat Engine tables created by virtual photographers, or injectors like Matti Hietanen’s superb Cinematic Tools. But if, for whatever reason, you can’t or don’t want to use external software like this, there are a few games with powerful photo modes conveniently built in. Here are some of our favourites. (via PC Gamer)
Metro Exodus and the developer that won’t stop fighting
On the early morning of May 22, 2017, Ubisoft released its first teaser trailer for Far Cry 5, an open world game set in a fictionalized version of Montana. Halfway around the world, in an office in Malta, a tired Ukrainian man watched the video as he neared the end of his work day. As it played out, he got increasingly angry. Swearing up a storm, he called for another man in the building to come to his desk and watch. (via Polygon)
