They apologized (again)
They will refund everyone who bought the beach DLC and make it a free addition to the game, admitting it was tasteless that they made paid DLC when the game is in a broken state
They will focus on base changes and better modding tools before starting to make more DLC (previously announced DLC has been delayed to 2025)
Console release delayed

Honestly, this is a good update. It's everything we wanted to hear. Looking forward to buying the game when it gets fixed.

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[–] arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 94 points 7 months ago (2 children)

This was too late. Paradox's in house development studio did the same thing with Victoria 3. Do something way too greedy (lock historical characters behind a preorder for a dlc that was already bad). Waited to see the backlash, and when it was too much, they make the bonuses free.

At least they're doing something, but the dlc should have been pushed back at launch.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 67 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It's not just greedy, at this point it's blatant. The release itself was already bonkers, but they could have saved things by working hard on the base game and releasing additional free content. But this? How many "sowwy we fucked up, we promise to do better, buy our new 132 DLCs" will they pull before people stop giving them the benefit of the doubt?

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not hopeful at all. If Bethesda or Blizzard are anything to go by, they can keep messing up big time for years, maybe decades to come and consumers will keep coming back, begging to be disappointed once more. You'll have more luck looking for alternatives out there in the ocean of indie games.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yep. It will never change As long as gamers continue to buy from shitty companies, the companies have no incentive to change in any direction but worse. Bethesda is a brilliant example of it, how every game is more simplistic and devoid, and more reliant on randomly generated content than the previous.

Ubisoft is another example, with the outright hostility, hatred and downright contempt they have towards their own customers.

and they are both still multi-billion dollar companies, cause idiots keep throwing them tons of money.

These updates from C:SL team mean nothing, cause they keep doing stupid shit despite of their sweet words. Like they did with trying to sell DLC for a broken game. Their actions and focus speak far louder than any of their honeyed words.

[–] arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I am actually planning on not buying anything more from paradox if they fuck up the launch of eu5, only dlc from current games (if they're worth it/required)

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Dlc should never feel required

[–] arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

But it does, sadly.

[–] Moneo@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

This is why I stopped buying Paradox games and just pirate them if I'm curious. No way I'm getting trapped in a fomo cycle everytime they release a minor feature for $5.

[–] Moneo@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I've hated Paradox ever since I bought CK2 and then realized how many minor features were locked behind $5 DLCs. I later pirated the game to play all the DLC and there is absolutely no fucking way that shit was worth what they are charging. Decided then never to buy a Paradox game again.

Compare that to the Factorio devs Wube. They released their game as a beta and then just kept updating it and adding features until it was done. Then they spent years fixing basically every bug in the game. As far as I know they never decreased the price or put the game on sale, and at one point they increased the price of their game because of inflation. Which honestly is fine, they made a great game and they are continuing to support the game, why decrease the price?

I know I'm coming off as a Wube shill but in my eyes they are ideal devs. Paradox in theory make really interesting games but in practice they poison them with shitty monetization strategies. If they just made games and added free updates for a while afterwards if they wanted to I probably would have spent a shit load on their games.

I'm ranting but as a side note, Paradox definitely abuses fomo. They make games that basically require you to watch videos of how to play and those videos inevitably mention DLCs which you then start wondering what you're missing out on. That's definitely what made me want to buy their DLC.

Fuck paradox

[–] arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It is a shame they're such a greedy company because, similarly to what you said in your 3rd paragraph, they make good games, some can be as good as games like factorio at times, but it's always ruined by their dlc.

You mentioned free updates at the end, I believe they are doing that for victoria 3, but their first big expansion for the game, spheres of influence, comes out in June so we'll see if they stick to that.

I love paradox games and have the money to by their dlc most the time and will keep buying the ones I want (because the beach dlc was too far even for the largest paradox shills) as long as the game's stability and the free players are prioritised, unlike the way they have been treated in cities: skylines 2.

And yes, fuck paradox, shame their games are ruined by their greed.

[–] 31337@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago

CK2 was a complete game at launch IIRC. They just kept releasing new DLC for it for many years, much of which was outside the scope of the original game (playing as Arabic rulers, vikings, Indians, etc). I think that's fine. Them selling music, portraits, and new models separately was kinda shitty though.