“Release high quality games, because winner takes all.”
It was a candid statement from the CEO.
Over the past 12 months, Paradox has been rocked by a stream of development catastrophes.
And in June, the company suddenlycancelled its Sims-like game Life By Youand shut down the studio responsible.
So what exactly went wrong with these projects?
And how is Paradox looking to put things right?
Can we salvage this?
Fahraeus echoes Lilja when I ask his opinion.
Then the team must work out how quickly fixes can be made, and how much it will cost.
“We trusted the devs quite a lot,” says Lilja.
There’s no single thing here that can actually compete viably in terms of gameplay."
“First impressions last, essentially,” Fahraeus adds.
So what was that new thing?
“That’s the problem,” he acknowledges.
“It would have taken too much time to make that happen.”
At one point, Lilja admits Paradox’s current status is “not a good place to be”.
So how does the company turn that around?
“We do more extensive and earlier peer reviews to get honest feedback earlier.
“We do want to take risks.
We want to try new things,” he continues.
“But we need to be much more disciplined about it than we’ve been.”
Discipline, in this instance, is about weighing up the risk with the size of investment.
As Lilja puts it: “The further from the core, the lower the investment should be.”
That core is what Fahraeus describes as “strategic simulations”.
Paradox does have its Tinto Talks to communicate with fans, and other similar avenues.
We used to be very good at it,” Fahraeus admits.
“So: back on track.
“A game is a painting and we don’t know when it’s done,” he says.
Perhaps a more urgent question, though, is why should fans believe Paradox this time?
This isn’t the first instance the company has cancelled projects or suffered financially.
How can Paradox rebuild trust from its fans?
“I understand that words feel hollow,” Liljas says.
In other words: actions speak louder than words.
We’re going to keep working.
“I don’t think that’s new.
It’s a return to form, actually, and I hope it will be perceived that way.
That’s how we should operate.”
“It’s not going to be cancelled,” Fahraeus assures.
“It’s a case where the game is fun.
It’s been fun for a while.
“Bloodlines is probably the last to come from that strategy,” he says.
It’s a tall order to measure up to a cult classic.”
Changes have been made internally too, Lilja says.
“We’ve gone into a pretty good cycle on that,” Lilja continues.
Still, Lilja says he is positive about the company’s future.
“I have full confidence this will also pass,” he says.
“A number of things happen at once.
They don’t have as much money.
Internal culture is also being improved, despite issues across the wider industry resulting in mass layoffs.
To combat this, Fahraeus again uses the cancelled Life By You as an example.
How much of that audience will move over and try it out?”
“It’s competing for players' time.
It’s getting more brutal all the time.
Established brands have it easier.
Breaking in is getting harder.
I think how we deal with that is release high quality games, because winner takes all.
So that’s the learning: you have to release high quality games.”
Paradox is capable of doing just that - but now it really needs to prove it once again.
As the pair state, actions speak louder than words.
Now, it needs to ensure it keeps making the right calls and not the wrong ones.
