New DLC is on par with a free update/mod

[Khorne Flakes]

Is Paradox financially on hard times or what? First overpricing existing DLC and now they're selling something that at any other time would've been a free update. The game has so few events and variation, why would you sell something the base game desperately needs? What happened to what was originally pitched with CK3's DLC policy, only having expansions and flavor packs? This paid update doesn't even come close to free mods like VIET - Events. Typical Paradox, always trying to nickel & dime their customers.

Stellaris has done something similar to 'event packs' known as story packs. Their primary selling point is also new events... HOWEVER, story packs also come with new types of enemies/potential allies and artifacts, independent minor factions who you can trade/cooperate with and end-game galactic wars between fallen empires. Content that's actually worth the asking price.
What is 'Friends and Foes' event pack coming with? 100+ generic events modders have already outdone? I'm betting no new models or clothing, no big interesting event chains or unique mechanics. The trailer and store page certainly give no hint of such things.

I thought Paradox hit their low a long time ago, right now they're trying real hard to hit lower. CK3 seemed like it was going to be a change of pace, Paradox smashed that naive hope in less than a month.

[Poompaxhotl-Mardxvar]

Originally posted by Khorne Flakes:

Is Paradox financially on hard times or what?

Well, there's no proper reliable data on their finances, but from all the events it seems true. Starting over the developement of Vampires Bloodlines 2 and dropping Imperator Rome "to legacy status" would leave a sizable hole in any company's budget. Don't forget that they removed regional pricing for Victoria 3.

[Johnny 5]

Nah, it's cause stooges keep buying their crap and simping to them

[Crusader993]

Originally posted by Khorne Flakes:

New DLC is on par with a free update/mod

I would even pay double for a decent DLC if the content was worth it. Unfortunately, the new features that have been announced are not suitable for solving the actual (content-related) problems of the game...

[Urza]

you do realize that for strategy games, especially PDX ones, DLC is effectively just the subscription that we the users pay on average for the privilege of it being an actively developed product?
They're going to release a pre-budgeted value of DLC per year, regardless of how much production time they actually spent that year on things they can effectively package as DLC vs how much time was spent on the systems they release as free updates.
Pay it or dont pay it, play it or dont play it.

Originally posted by Johnny 5:

Nah, it's cause stooges keep buying their crap and simping to them

This is for the record the opposite of what I do in practice. If their release schedule doesnt live up to what I want I just dont buy their ♥♥♥♥. I put down stellaris for like 5 years after the utopia update cause DLC was buggy as hell and an atrocious mess. After trying it the other day, its still got some problems, but its better and at least everything was on sale.

Im also confused at someone saying there's no 'proper' data on their finances, they're a publicly traded company, they made about $25 mill in profit last year after tax and such. Its a little more than a 15% after tax margin, which isnt shabby.
https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/investors/financial-reports/year-end-report-2021

A couple years ago iirc I saw them literally streaming their quarterly financial report on I think twitch, they probably still do that. Idk how their finances are supposed to be a mystery.

[Poompaxhotl-Mardxvar]

Originally posted by Urza:

you do realize that for strategy games, especially PDX ones, DLC is effectively just the subscription that we the users pay on average for the privilege of it being an actively developed product?

Well, where is the so called actively developed product? So far, after two full (hey, it was actually released on 1st of September) years of "active developement" we saw only one proper DLC. Compare it to ck2 that in the same time managed to drastically change the whole game by introducing muslims, republics, pagans, India (let us be generous and count March of 2014 in the period) and greatly expanded gameplay of Christian feudals in Sons of Abraham.
And don't tell me how they changed their strategy — it doesn't matter if we are missing features from practically every paid DLC from the previous game.

[Johnny 5]

Yeah and in this DLC we get "making friends & memories". Right.......

[Urza]

Pay it or dont pay it, play it or dont play it.

Im not here to make excuses for them, I'm pretty much just here to tell you that part of what you seem to be whining about doesnt make sense.
I'm not actually sure if your complaint is the packaging of the dlc/development, or the pace of development, or both, or just general Karening, but if its not worth your money then go buy a quarter of an amzn share or something.

[Johnny 5]

It's a discussion on the high price and low level of content. If you want to simp that's fine...its a discussion.

[Urza]

consider me slain by your repartee

[ImperialForce9]

Sure content may be lacking when it comes to DLC, but Paradox don't have the funds that triple A companies have. Look at Overkill studio's game, Payday 2. The reason why theres so many DLC for a game that's been around for 10 years is due to them nearly going bankrupt multiple times. Adding DLC to their existing games also helps said game get continued getting futher patches and updates.

[Chocolayte]

You know what comes next, event pack 2, event pack 3 in next year and beyond.

[Jackochainsaw]

I'm going to stay judgement until I see the price details. They haven't been floated yet. The free patch content that comes with 1.7 looks pretty awesome with the memory system. I would imagine these 100 events have had a fair bit of integration time to work with that system so whilst they might seem a little drab on the surface, they might be a bit more functional than you realise. I wish this memory feature had been something in the base game at launch though. I feel its come a bit late on now. It's kind of like not having swimming pools and toddlers from the start in the Sims 4.

I would also agree with those who say that a lot of Mod stuff is getting turned into content. It kinda sucks because we know that the modder who had the great ideas, probably hasn't been compensated for that effort, in monetary terms. But there have been some good inclusions that have been mod inspired. Does everyone remember the mod that cleared all of those popups. That got integrated in a patch.

I do get the sense they are hard up right now. To both throw out a statement that they are increasing the cost of flavour packs, then throw out this small event pack as well. Yeah, I get that sense. You could say inflation, but I think its more than that.

[Kale6191]

Have they said anything about pricing? I find it kinda weird that this is out in a week and there's no mention of price

[PDX-Trinexx]

Originally posted by Kale6191:

Have they said anything about pricing? I find it kinda weird that this is out in a week and there's no mention of price

The announcement post on our forums[pdxint.at] includes the price. The store page on Steam should be updated shortly to reflect that.

[RW]

Honestly, I find it surprising they add so many new features for free. My only guess is that they're forced to because of multiplayer. If so, it must be super frustrating for Paradox employees to do all this hard work on features that have to go into a free update, then see how much people complain about how the monetized dlc content that goes with it isn't even worth $5.