Today the Paradox Interactive Q1 interim financial investor meeting took place and it was held in their kitchen in true Paradox style. Paradox appears to be doing rather well which is no huge surprise thanks to their strong portfolio of titles.
In the past year, their player base has doubled from 1 million players every month to 2 million, in part due to the strong sales of the excellent Cities: Skylines which was released two years ago. Heart of Iron IV has also sold well and has reached 500.000 units sold.
Frederik Wester discussed their approach to marketing which is highly targeted a their PC audience. Wester also went on to say that they monitor Steam reviews closely but stressed they do not influence Steam reviewers in any way. They use Steam reviews as valuable feedback to improve their games.
Regarding new games, Wester stated that they are using capital to fund new development. Two out five games that are developed at Paradox will never see the light of day due to quality and they have given up a few projects recently. Paradox apparently experiments a lot with new ideas but they don’t always result in a finished shipped game.
Paradox is also looking further afield outside of Sweden and has recently pushed Cities: Skylines onto the new Wegame in China which is another Steam-like distribution platform. Wester also mentioned that they could look at opening other studios outside of Sweden.
The majority of Paradox titles may be targetted at a niche strategy audience but there’s certainly an appetite for them. Game such as Crusader Kings 2 are still going strong five years after release. Wester says they are not dismissing the idea of looking at releasing other games aimed at a wider audience in the future.
You can watch the financial round-up below which is a lot more entertaining than most financial reports and it’s worth watching in full.
