A quarter century after the release of the historical grand strategy game that launched an empire, the Europa Universalis enters a dramatic new era with Europa Universalis V. Paradox Interactive's flagship historical series about the early modern world is being updated with a fresh, new version for a new generation, a game that dares you to be ambitious.

Designed over five years by Paradox Tinto, Europa Universalis V builds on 25 years of tradition and experience to deliver the same captivating empire building and alternate histories that have been the hallmark of Paradox's grand strategy games. Europa Universalis V has been crafted with the devoted Paradox fan in mind, incorporating feedback delivered by the fan community over a year of public discussion, and giving this dedicated audience a voice in the realization of this new vision.

Hello Kindred, we would like to share an update on the development and release window of Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. As Marco explained in the video (view it below), Bloodlines 2 will not be ready for release in the first half of 2025. Paradox Interactive and The Chinese Room are committed to delivering this game, and we believe that ensuring great technical quality is more important than sticking to a specific date.

The game is currently in a late development stage, and feedback from the community has been taken into account during this time. TCR is working hard on quality assurance to ensure it is stable and free of bugs that could disrupt the player experience. Bloodlines 2 will launch in October 2025 when the game meets the technical quality standards that you, our fans, rightfully expect and deserve. Please stay tuned for the game's exact launch date. We want to ensure that the content we share with you is high-quality and showcases exciting game features. With this updated release timeline, we will pause our development diaries so that the team can concentrate on refining the game.

Paradox Interactive AB (Paradox) has signed a binding agreement to acquire all shares in Haemimont Games AD (Haemimont Games). The acquisition is a further step in Paradox's strategic focus on growing in the management games genre, by building a strong internal capability that complements the Group's current studio organization. "We are very happy to welcome Haemimont Games to Paradox!" said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox. "They bring a tight-knit team with long experience in developing management games with many well received projects in their portfolio. Moreover, they have a strong creative streak, technology developed for their niche, a new IP in development and a strong culture that fits Paradox's way of working. We have strong faith in their team and leadership, and our main focus now is to ensure that they can continue to create great games under new ownership."

Following the acquisition, Haemimont Games will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Paradox. The current leadership and team will remain active with the studio, and the studio's ongoing projects will remain in development. "We're delighted to become a part of the Paradox family!" said Gabriel Dobrev, Founder of Haemimont Games. "The cultural fit between our companies is remarkable, and we already feel at home. This partnership empowers us to push the boundaries of our games, delivering deeper and more intense experiences to our players. It also opens new horizons for our team, technology, and creative processes, which we're eager to explore. Expect amazing new games from us!" The acquisition consists of an upfront cash consideration and a performance-based earnout of similar size that is to be paid out over the coming years. Haemimont Games and Paradox have agreed to not disclose the purchasing price at this point. The acquisition is financed with cash at hand and expected to be completed within a few days.

Ease into spring with the warm, cozy vibes of Palia, coming to the cloud this GFN Thursday. It's part of six new titles joining the GeForce NOW library of over 1,800 games. Welcome Home. Escape to a cozy world with Palia, a free-to-play massively multiplayer online game from Singularity 6 Corporation. The game, which has made its way onto more than 200,000 wishlists on Steam, has launched in the cloud this week.

Farm, fish, craft and explore with friendly villagers across a stunning variety of different biomes—from sprawling flower fields to hilly forests and rocky beaches—in the world of Palia. Inhabit the land, furnish a dream home, unravel ancient mysteries and interact with a vibrant online community. Get ready for a captivating adventure across devices by streaming Palia from the cloud. GeForce NOW Ultimate and Priority members get faster access to servers and longer gaming sessions over Free members.

Lead a nation of your design through a history shaped by your choices in Millennia, a new 4x historical strategy game from C Prompt Games and Paradox Interactive. Guide your people from the stone to a near future, maybe taking detours through historical ages of plague or steampunk technology in Millennia, available now. From us at Paradox Interactive & C Prompt Games, we hope you love the game!

Define history; turn by turn and age by age. In Millennia, you start with a blank slate on which to write a new society and culture. Choose traits and government forms as you accumulate power through a variety of domains (government, war, art, etc.), using these powers to expand and exploit the world around you. Develop a production chain to transform common resources into valuable goods, and then trade the surplus to a distant settlement, boosting its population and production. Define your nation as a land of warriors, explorers or learners as you adopt new traits over time.

Welcome to the 13th and luckiest week of the year, which is also the last week of March and Easter Week in many countries. Fortunately, we're still getting a ton of new games this week, most of which are released on Tuesday for some strange reason. This week's major release is from strategy game experts Paradox Interactive and it's one of several strategy games this week. The remaining game releases this week includes a cosy MMO, robots, a new take on a city builder, some familiar faces that are up to no good as usual, some necromancing, divine heroes and a spice grinder.

Millennia / This week's major release / Tuesday 26 March
Create your own nation in Millennia, a historical turn-based 4X game that challenges your strategic prowess across 10,000 years of history, from the dawn of humanity to our possible futures. Set the course of history and experience different timelines in every playthrough as you write an epic story through your actions. Lead your people through times of crisis and ages of discovery, face great challenges and opportunities, and build a civilization that prospers through the ages. Steam Link

Paradox Interactive and Channel 3 Entertainment are thrilled to announce that Foundry will be launching in Early Access on Steam on May 2nd. Foundry, the procedurally-generated voxel factory-building and automation sandbox, already garnered 100,000 players during its alpha phase on Itch.io and its demo on Steam Next Fest in October 2023.

Foundry is a first-person, factory-building and automation sandbox set in a beautiful, procedurally-generated voxel world. Starting from humble beginnings of manually mining and processing resources, crafting machinery, and developing technologies, players can advance to automating the entire production line to their precise plans. They will face different logistic challenges such as planning pipe and belt networks and managing complex power systems, working to expand their constantly growing production lines as they create their own gigantic, automated, and self-sustaining factory. Played solo or with friends, Foundry is the perfect mix between grid-based construction games and factory building simulations.

With Mods (short for modifications), you can tailor your gaming experience to your unique preferences. Uploaded by creators all over the world, you can pick between anything to create the city of your dreams. Along with Beach Properties, the first wave of Cities: Skylines II Modding will be available. The Beta release of Modding will initially support Map and Code mods. With the Map Editor, you can make maps with the Terraforming Tools you're used to, import hightmaps to create highly accurate depictions of your hometown, and upload your creations to Paradox Mods.

With the Code Tools, you can show off your coding skills and create Code Mods to meet your heart's desire! Future updates will improve on these tools and come to include support for Asset Mods. As we've talked about before, there will be updates to these tools that we are currently working on, and we will see some updates before the 1.0 release. We will be taking your opinion into consideration when we continue to work on the editor and are looking forward to seeing the feedback that you might have. If you're curious on what the process of Modding will look like you can already check it out on the Cities: Skylines II Wiki here.

Discover new Machine content and explore the story of your empire's ascension into synthetic or cybernetic beings. It is time to leave our flawed biological vessels behind. It's my pleasure to announce that The Machine Age major expansion will be released alongside the Stellaris 3.12 'Andromeda' update. Focusing on cybernetic, synthetic, and machine themes, The Machine Age will begin during the second quarter of 2024.

In pursuing the divine calling, we shall achieve the fusion of the exalted body and sacred cybernetics. The Technophants and Haruspex of the Cybernetic Creed will guide their flock to the perfect union of flesh and machine. Cybernetic augmentation is not solely the province of the materialists. Playgrounds stand empty. In time, we will cease to be. For now, our salvation lies in the digital realm…A doomed species races against extinction to reach the virtual world in Synthetic Fertility.

Hello there! Your friendly neighborhood Community Manager, Katten here, this time to introduce you to our CONFIRMED release date for Millennia! So, it's time to stock up on refreshments, order the pizza, and mark your calendars for March 26, 2024! Now, I am sure you are all super excited to see what has changed about the game, or for you newcomers, what the game is all about. Check out this amazing trailer below.

With this, Pre-Purchase is now live, with the Base game available for $39.99 and the Premium Edition for $59.99. The Premium Edition includes two skins for early game units as an instant unlock and our two planned upcoming expansions: Ancient Worlds & Atomic Ambitions! Now, don't those two sound like an "Explosive new start"? I now pass the microphone to the Co-Founder of C Prompt Games & Lead Designer of Millennia, Ian Fischer!

Paradox Interactive, a publisher of challenging games about running empires, today announces their partnership with XperimentalZ Games to publish Escape the Mad Empire, a dungeon-crawling game with intense tactical pause combat and base management gameplay that will release in Early Access on Steam in 2024 under the Paradox Arc publishing initiative. You can try Escape the Mad Empire today by playing the demo, including a mini-campaign and a challenging boss fight! You can find the demo here.

Escape the Mad Empire is a rogue-like dungeon-crawling game where you control a party of heroes facing near-impossible odds in a series of procedurally-generated, apocalyptic dungeons, filled to the brim with foes, traps, and deadly boss fights. Leverage the tactical pause system to execute complex strategies in the blink of an eye and clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. As you overcome the threats of the apocalypse, manage your heroes' instability, grow your base, and fight to survive until you Escape the Mad Empire or fall to its horrors.

Hello there! Community Manager Katten here, we provided access to the Steam Next Fest Demo! So this Diary is here to get you caught up to speed to the question; What is Millennia? Millennia is a revolutionary turn-based 4X game developed by C Prompt Games, a team of experienced strategy developers known for their work on the Age of Empires franchise. This game introduces innovative elements such as alternate history, custom tech trees, and a focus on both economy and combat. Millennia stands out by redefining the 4X genre with dynamic historical progression, where your decisions shape the unfolding of different historical ages. Each age brings its own distinct gameplay challenges and opportunities, taking players on a journey from ancient civilizations to futuristic societies. With every choice holding significance, Millennia offers unparalleled replayability and strategic depth with its unique core pillars, so let's dive in!

Ages
A key innovation in Millennia is the Age-based design. There are ten Ages in a "normal" game, ranging from the Age of Stone to the near-future. Each Age provides the experience of the Age - the Age of Iron has Iron Age technologies, Iron Age units, Iron Age buildings, and rules specific to the conditions of the Iron Age. If you keep things within "normal" parameters, you might progress through 10 "standard" Ages, each delivering historical gameplay. However, Millennia allows history to go off the rails. If you make some different decisions, you might steer your timeline into alternate Ages. These Ages are still historically themed, but explore some "what-if" territory. The Age of Aether is based on a history where the internal combustion engine doesn't come about as soon as it did and steam-power develops further. The Age of Blood is based on a war raging out of control and spreading across the world. Ultimately, most of the things you have to use in a game come from the Ages, so you can end up with very, very different scenarios depending on the specific history and alternate history your timeline moves through.

Paradox Interactive and Triumph Studios have announced the release date for Age of Wonders 4: Primal Fury, a new content pack coming on February 27, 2024 to the award-winning fantasy strategy game for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The studios also revealed the full list of features that will be included with Primal Fury, including a new Primal Culture themed around mastery of beasts and nature, new Tomes of Magic to wield the forces of mists and storms, new physical forms, mounts, and much more. Primal Fury will be available on all platforms for a suggested retail price of $9.99/£8.49/€9.99; players who purchased the Premium Edition of Age of Wonders 4 or the Expansion Pass will receive Primal Fury at launch for no additional cost.

In the Age of Wonders 4: Primal Fury content pack, players will discover new ways to conquer the realms, and bring the land itself under their control. The new Primal Culture will enable rulers to channel an animal spirit that shapes their empire, both physically and spiritually. The Tome of Fey Mists and the Tome of the Stormborne, both added in Primal Fury, include new spells to conceal troops in magical fog, gain advantages over seas and shorelines, and even transform armies into fearsome nagas. The pack will also launch alongside the free Wolf Update, which will add new features and improvements requested by the Age of Wonders community, including a rework of necromancy, new randomly generated items, and War Bounties to better direct allies in conflicts.

Hi everyone, we are Elise Galmard, Lead Narrative Designer, and Simon Svoboda, Lead Level Designer at Don't Nod. We're a part of the team bringing you Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, a supernatural tale of two lovers and ancient secrets. In this supernatural Action-RPG, play as two ghost hunters and lovers who face impossible choices that harbor dramatic consequences for the living… and the dead. From February 13, you'll get the chance to sift through the shadows of the past in New Eden, but before then we'd love to give you a glimpse into the world. Today we're talking all about haunting cases, a common form of quest you'll encounter in Banishers.

Behind The Veil
Our game universe is set in the world of the 17th century as we know it, with one major difference: the world is plagued with curses and ghost hauntings. During a Haunting Case, you will find ghosts that are still attached to the world of the living, which you as a Banisher, will be asked to investigate and solve. Haunting Cases serve as side quests in our game. A ghost is the lingering spirit of a dead person, holding onto some of their memories and feelings. Bound to the Incarnate world (the world of the living) by unresolved emotion that takes the form of an item called the Soul-tie, a ghost is also attached to one or more living beings, forever linked and wandering until you set them free. You must discover the truth behind each lingering ghost and why they're here.

Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer of deep and strategic games for cerebral players, has announced their collaboration with SquareNite to publish Darfall, a roleplaying strategy game with settlement-building mechanics that will be released in Early Access in 2024 under the Paradox Arc publishing initiative. Darfall is a strategy game where you take control of a hero who must explore and adventure through the land to gain power while simultaneously managing a nascent village in its efforts to expand and grow into a larger town. However, as the sun sets, the dark forces plaguing the land unleash their minions against your base and it is your job as a hero to take a stand in defense of its home. Each night that the forces of evil are thwarted, the more dangerous and numerous the nighttime raids become.

Big Announcement
Hello, Darfall community! It's me Lukas and we have some thrilling news to share that marks a new era in the journey of Darfall. We are incredibly proud and excited to announce our partnership with the renowned game publisher, Paradox! More specifically, their Arc initiative. This collaboration is not just a milestone for us at SquareNite, but also a testament to the potential of Darfall. For us, collaborating with Paradox is a dream realized. Their commitment to crafting quality, strategic games that captivate players for countless hours aligns perfectly with our vision for Darfall.

Good evening Kindred, in our recent Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 stream, we shared exciting news about the game and our first extended gameplay trailer. On the stream, The Chinese Room (TCR) Community Manager Josh Matthews was joined by Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at TCR, who shared insights on the game, the narrative background, and how the game plays. If you missed the stream, you can check it out below. The gameplay stream contains several spoilers, and if you wish to avoid them, there are sections marked in the video timeline, or you can watch the trailer version of the gameplay video, which does not contain any major spoilers.

Matthews and Skidmore highlight an early-game mission, discussing why the player character, Phyre, infiltrates an abandoned warehouse to uncover clues about the mysterious mark on their hand. Players must choose their actions wisely, whether confronting the court's secret keeper like Willem or meeting unruly ghouls and illusions that cloud the environment. Acting as "The Sheriff" of the Court, Phyre's choices impact how the world perceives them and bring them closer to uncovering Seattle's secrets.

Paradox Interactive and Double Eleven have announced Prison Architect 2, the 3D successor to their prison management simulator. The game offers deeper simulation, greater player control, an inhabitant behavior system and creative options to define the next generation of management gameplay. Prison Architect 2 launches on March 26 on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 for a suggested retail price of $39.99 / £34.99 / €39.99. Enterprising Architects can pre-order Prison Architect 2 on PC today.

Prison Architect 2 offers advanced simulation systems, enabling players to construct intricate compounds with a high degree of creative freedom in a 3D environment. From building elaborate structures to managing inmates' needs while maintaining the facility's financial stability, Prison Architect 2 expands gameplay and creative tools across the board, for an engaging sandbox experience. The game also introduces a connection system between the prisoners, who will make friends or enemies with each other, impacting who they will hang out, partner or fight with. Prison Architect 2 brings prison construction and management gameplay to a new level by entering the third dimension and bringing deeper simulation than ever before.

Paradox Interactive and The Chinese Room have announced that the Banu Haqim are a playable clan in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Focusing on stalking, assassination, and outmaneuvering enemies, the Banu Haqim specialize in combat from the shadows with unseen maneuvers and silent takedowns. Known for keeping their bloodlust in check, the Banu Haqim are fiercely devoted to upholding a moral code, dealing with threats, and handing out consequences. They lurk in the shadows, using their vampiric Disciplines to hunt and remain hidden, dealing swift and precise strikes to enforce their sense of justice.

"Making Phyre a Banu Haqim changes how players approach combat, offering a unique perspective to the game's world," said Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at The Chinese Room. "Players must approach encounters carefully to make the most of this clan's gifts, timing their strikes with finesse and precision to achieve their goals. These Kindred are patient and careful, making them ideal for players looking for a strategic experience."

Good evening Kindred, today we shared some very exciting news on our Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 news stream! We were joined by Sean Greaney (EVP of Darkness) and Ian Thomas (Narrative Director at TCR), who discussed some of the game's features relating to both narrative and roleplaying. In case you missed it, you can find it below. In the stream, we were introduced to the protagonist of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2; Phyre, an Elder vampire at odds with the voice in her head, who confronts Seattle's powerful elites at war over the City's fate.

Players choose Phyre's clan and gender and begin exploring a re-imagined Seattle filled with compelling characters while maneuvering through complex relationships. Choices and conversations (even outfits!) shape how the environment and characters react to Phyre, changing how the story unfolds.

Today, Paradox Interactive announced Astral Planes, a new narrative-focused expansion for its sci-fi strategy game Stellaris, coming later this year on PC. Thanks to new reality-breaking technologies and systems, in Astral Planes players will explore alternative dimensions and encounter creatures and phenomena in numerous parallel worlds. They will chart their own path through the unknown in self-contained and fully branching narratives, adding new depth and agency to player choices.

Navigate wonders and dangers through the different features included in Astral Planes:
NEW CORE SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Unlock new Technologies, Actions, and Relics to manipulate space and interact with the galaxy in unexpected ways. Explore new realms filled with mysteries and opportunities.

Lords of the Fallen got plenty of patches in the last few days, with two of them, Patch 1.1.199 and 1.1.203, launched yesterday, and the latest, Patch v1.1.207, launched earlier today. The previous two fixed GPU crashes on AMD graphics cards, as well as a big fix for the issue in communication between the drivers and DirectX 12. The Patch 1.1.203 also brought a reduction in VRAM usage that should provide additional headroom for GPUs operating at the limit, which in turn should provide a substantial performance improvement, at least according to Paradox Interactive.

The latest Patch 1.1.207 brought further stability improvements, fixing several crash issues as well as implementing various optimization, multiplayer, gameplay, AI, Quest and other improvements. The release notes also note that the fix for the issue that causes the game to crash on Steam Deck has been fixed, and should be published as soon as it passes QA.

Paradox Interactive (Paradox) and Harebrained Schemes (HBS)—developers of the Shadowrun trilogy, BATTLETECH and The Lamplighters League—have decided to part ways on 1 January 2024. The separation is the result of a mutual agreement, stemming from each party's strategic and creative priorities. Paradox will retain ownership of The Lamplighters League and other games developed by the studio. HBS will seek new publishing, partnership, and investment opportunities.

"Paradox has refocused its strategy towards its core niches within strategy and management games with endless qualities," said Charlotta Nilsson, COO of Paradox. "We and HBS' leadership have been discussing what would happen after the release of The Lamplighters League, but a new project or sequel in the same genre was not in line with our portfolio plans. Hence, we believe that a separation would be the best way forward. We're very happy that this talented, gifted studio has the chance to continue and can't wait to see what they will make next."

Welcome to the launch of The Lamplighters League! It goes without saying, maybe, but this is a special day for us, and we are so excited to be sharing this game with you. Games like this take a long time to bring to life from the first pitches to the final product you can finally play today. At each stage there are unique challenges—especially when bringing to life a brand new game world and working out new twists for an established and complex genre like turn-based tactics. It can be grueling, especially when the build isn't feeling fun, or a production deadline is looming. Or, worse, when those two things are happening at once.

It can also be incredibly rewarding. There was a moment during development where we were, in fact, facing down the fact that infiltration just wasn't fun and there was a big deadline coming up fast. We needed to rethink things, and we needed to do it quickly. Under that pressure the team prototyped and implemented the real time takedowns in just a few weeks. I jumped up in the air the first time I saw the shock from a mine travel through the water on the ground to take out an unaware enemy. It was a big victory right when we needed it as a team.

Lead a nation of your own design through thousands of years of history in Millennia, a new turn-based strategy game from Paradox Interactive and C Prompt Games. Progress through ten ages of humanity, from the Stone Age to the near future, unlocking new technologies, new ways of living, and, maybe, alternate pasts that could have been.

C Prompt Games is an American development team helmed by veteran strategy game developers Rob Fermier, Ian Fischer and Brian Sousa. Motivated by a passion for deep and replayable systems-driven games, they bring their experience working on many celebrated real-time strategy games (including Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology and Starcraft II, as well as Orcs Must Die) to the turn-based 4x space in Millennia, a game that pairs the familiar comforts of the genre with fresh new gameplay to enable players to write their own stories of the past.

Hey everyone! We're back with another installment of our development diary series. In this one, we will go over a feature that will help you capture the most memorable moments from your city! The Cinematic and Free Camera modes are completely different from what you are familiar with in Cities: Skylines. The difference between them is truly day and night. In Cities: Skylines II, both modes can be accessed by clicking the Photo Mode button located in the bottom-right corner of the main UI.

From here, you can dive into the world of photo- and cinematography and capture your city in all of its glory, chaos, or spaghetti road madness with your friends or other players alike! The power of these tools is really conveyed by the fact the in-game trailer was filmed using the built-in Cinematic Camera feature, and today's diary is here to help you navigate the options so you too can capture amazing footage of your city!