Paradox Interactive

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Paradox Interactive AB

logo
legal form Aktiebolag
ISIN SE0008294953
founding 1999 (as Paradox Entertainment)
split in November 2004
Seat Stockholm , SwedenSwedenSweden 
management Ebba Ljungerud ( CEO )
Number of employees approx. 400 (2020)
sales 1.13 billion SEK (2018)
Branch Computer games
Website www.paradoxplaza.com

Paradox Interactive AB is a Swedish publisher of computer games and related franchise products based in Stockholm . The company is a listed stock corporation and has its own development studio with its subsidiary Paradox Development Studio AB , which specializes primarily in the development of global strategy games with a historical background.

history

Creation of the company

The company's roots go back to the 1980s and Target Games AB, which was founded at that time, initially only a manufacturer of board games and miniatures for tabletop under the brand "Äventyrsspel" (in German: "Adventure games"). In the mid-1990s, the company decided to enter the video and computer games business. The first title, Svea Rike , a strategy game on Swedish history between 1523 and 1818, with the aim of being crowned king before the end of the game, was inspired by a board game of the same name that was already popular in Sweden. Despite the sales success of this game and its successor Svea Rike II in 1999, bankruptcy proceedings had to be opened before the turn of the millennium. In the course of this, the computer game development department was sold and Paradox Entertainment AB was founded, through which only the role-playing and miniatures division was to be continued. License rights and intellectual property to the games remained with Target Games.

At the beginning of 2000, however, the majority of the shares in Paradox Entertainment AB were bought up by a group of external investors around the former managers Fredrik Malmberg and Nils Guliksson. As new managing directors, they also took over or led the other former departments of Target Games one after the other back into a joint company. The Svea Rike series then received a third part. The breakthrough in computer games came in 2000 when Airfix: Dogfighter and, above all, Europa Universalis were marketed. Paradox received numerous awards for the latter and its successor, Europa Universalis II . Thereupon work began on other titles in which the successful gameplay was retained and varied for other eras, such as World War II with Hearts of Iron (2002), the Victorian Age with Victoria: An Empire under the Sun (2003) and the Middle Ages in Crusader Kings (2004).

In the following years, the company increasingly appeared as a publisher for titles from other studios. However, this was clearly criticized. The quality of the published titles, especially Chariots of War and the role-playing game Valhalla Chronicles, was well below its own standards. According to long-standing employees, such as the programmer Johan Andersson, who was largely responsible for the Europa-Universalis series, management had less and less interest in their own products, and instead used the proceeds to purchase trademark rights and planned to make films. In November 2004, consequences were drawn from this. Paradox Entertainment entered the film business through its subsidiary Paradox Entertainment Inc. in Los Angeles , California . The computer games department with all licenses for the previously published and all games still in development was split off and taken over by Theodore Bergquist, the then managing director of Paradox Entertainment. The company that emerged from the computer games department then traded as Paradox Interactive AB. Fredrik Malmberg managed Paradox Entertainment Inc. until 2014 before leaving the company to work as an independent film producer. However, he then founded the investment company Cabinet Holdings, with which he took over Paradox Entertainment Inc. in mid-2015. Since then it has operated as Cabinet Licensing .

Independent development as a computer game publisher

In 2006 Paradox Interactive announced that it would concentrate less on in-house developments than on the publication of games from other manufacturers. To this end, an office was opened in New York and the GamersGate.com sales platform was launched in April 2006. When Frederik Wester, who had significantly advanced the development of the platform, finally bought Bergquist's shares and took over management, GamersGate's share of the overall business had risen to almost 97%.

In December 2009, Paradox Interactive took over AGE Studio, the parent company of the development studio AGEOD founded in France in 2005. Its co-founder Philippe Thibaut was the original inventor of the Europa-Universalis board game. AGEOD, an abbreviation for “AGE Online Distribution”, has since also developed strategy games with a historical background, but based on the self-developed “AGE” (“Adaptive Game Engine”). For the takeover, it was agreed that AGEOD would continue to operate like an independent development studio, but would be supported by Paradox as a publisher.

In 2012, a reorganization was carried out as part of which the development studio was outsourced to a wholly owned subsidiary called Paradox Developement Studio AB. On October 26, 2015, Paradox Interactive announced the purchase of the American RPG publisher White Wolf . For a purchase price of "several tens of millions of Swedish crowns" to the previous owner CCP Games , the rights to the role-playing game rules Welt der Dunkelheit ( World of Darkness or WoD for short ) and Vampire: Die Maserade ( Vampire : The Masquerade ). The company, which merged with CCP Game in 2006, was re-established as White Wolf Inc. and is to operate as an independent subsidiary of Paradox Interactive .

initial public offering

On May 31, 2016, the company went public and was listed on Nasdaq First North , part of Nasdaq Nordic (abbreviation PDX). The company's value at that time was estimated at around $ 420 million. In addition to the main shareholders, managing director Fredrik Wester and the Swedish investment group Spiltan, the Chinese internet and computer games group Tencent took a 5% stake in the company. With the opening of a subsidiary in Sweden specializing in mobile devices, the company entered the mobile games market in May 2017. One month later, in June 2017, the Dutch Triumph Studios ( Age of Wonders , Overlord ) were taken over. In January 2018, the publisher secured a 33% stake in the American development studio Hardsuit Labs ( Blacklight: Retribution ), consisting of former employees of the dissolved Zombie Studios, for two million US dollars . With the entry, the publisher also secured the option to increase its shares in the studio. In February 2018, Fredrik Wester handed over management to Ebba Ljungerud and moved to the position of Executive Chairman .

According to its own information, Paradox Interactive had a player community of 3,500,000 members in 2016, more than 500,000 of them in the area of ​​in-house developments of the Paradox Development Studio.

Business organization

Paradox Interactive divides its endeavors into three areas:

  • Studios: The development of own computer games by Paradox Development Studios
  • Publishing: The publication of externally developed computer games by the parent company.
  • White Wolf: The development of pen & paper and live role-playing games

Products

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Game series based on the Clausewitz engine

For Europa Universalis III developed paradox that Clausewitz engine , after the Prussian major general and army reformer Carl von Clausewitz called game engine used since then for all in-house developments of the company. With the successor Europa Universalis IV , the game engine was already used in the further developed version 2.5. In addition to a 3D representation of the map, the engine usually manages very extensive and complex data, the handling of which requires a longer training period for the player, but then allows a very high degree of flexibility. In this way, a saved game can be continued not only with the game character selected last, but also from the point of view of almost any other person present in the game simulation. The use of unencrypted text and image data makes it easier to intervene and modding both the data of individual scores and the general appearance and mechanics of the games. In May 2016, Paradox released a tool that allows models created in Maya to be used directly in games based on the engine.

  • Europa Universalis: Rome from 2009 is set in the time of the Roman Republic. In November of the same year, Vae Victis was released as an add-on. The second part of the series Imperator: Rome was published on April 25, 2019 .
  • Crusader Kings - simulation of the feudal system in the Middle Ages . Without expansions, the game covers the period between September 15, 1066 and December 30, 1453. In contrast to the other Paradox titles, the player does not take control of a country, but directs the respective heads of a dynasty over the centuries. Numerous expansions add new geographical areas to the game, additional time periods before the original starting year 1066 or add further options for action to control the events. In August 2013 Paradox published a converter program that can be used to export scores from Crusader Kings II to Europa Universalis IV . The successor to Crusader Kings III has been announced for 2020 .
  • Europa Universalis - simulation of around two hundred nations in different time periods. From 1492 to 1792 in Europa Universalis , from 1419 to 1819 in Europa Universalis II , from 1453 to 1789 in Europa Universalis III (published in 2007) and from 1444 to 1821 in Europa Universalis IV (published in 2013). In addition, the add-ons Asian Chapters appeared for the second part and Napoleon's Ambition , In Nomine , Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind for the third part.
  • Victoria - The Victoria series deals with the further history in the period from 1836 to 1936. The first part Victoria - An Empire Under The Sun , published in 2003, received an expansion via the add-on Victoria: Revolutions in August 2006 . Only with the expansion was the story, which was initially only playable until 1920, extended to 1936. A new edition appeared as Victoria II in 2010 and was added in 2012 and 2013 with the add-ons Victoria II: A House Divided and Victoria II: Heart of Darkness added.
  • Hearts of Iron - The scenarios of the now four-part game series Hearts of Iron are set in the time of the Second World War . Thus, for example, the period from 1936 to 1948 can be authentically re-enacted. The Doomsday expansion for the second part of the series extends the period up to 1953. Hearts of Iron III was released in 2009 and Hearts of Iron IV in June 2016.
  • Stellaris - science fiction game with the starting year 2200. Unlike the historical games, the map does not represent the earth, but a procedurally generated galaxy. However, the solar system with Earth can be part of this galaxy.

In-house developments

Third-party productions as a publisher

Paradox Interactive also sells franchise products such as books and soundtracks for its series. For example, fantasy author Steven Savile, who lives in Sweden, wrote accompanying novels to Crusader Kings II and Stellaris , which Paradox distributes.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ We are Paradox , on the company website paradoxplaza.com , accessed on July 13, 2020 (English)
  2. ↑ Year-end report 2018. Annual report on the company website paradoxinteractive.com , February 19, 2019, accessed on February 22, 2019 (English).
  3. ↑ Paradox Interactive AB (publ) . In: allabolag.se (Swedish company data provider), accessed April 26, 2016 (Swedish)
  4. ^ A b Paradox Interactive AB . In: MobyGames , accessed April 26, 2016
  5. ^ A b c Paul Dean: Inside Paradox, the strangest company in video games . In: Eurogamer , September 25, 2013, accessed April 26, 2016 (English)
  6. ↑ Marshall Lemon: Conan The Barbarian IP Switches Hands To New Owner . In: The Escapist , May 27, 2015, accessed May 18, 2018
  7. ^ The Cabinet Group: The Company . From the website of Cabinet Entertainment LLC , accessed on May 18, 2018 (English)
  8. ^ A b Kath Brice: Paradox Interactive acquires strategy developer AGEOD . In: gamesindustry.biz , December 17, 2009, accessed on May 20, 2018 (English)
  9. ↑ Alex Meer: Paradox Buys White Wolf - Including World Of Darkness & Vampire: The Masquerade - From EVE Online Firm CCP . In: RockPaperShotgun.com , October 29, 2015, accessed April 26, 2016
  10. ↑ Borja Vilar Martos: Tencent acquires 5% as Paradox Interactive goes public. In: pocketgamer.biz. June 2, 2016, accessed May 18, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Christopher Dring: Paradox opens mobile studio in Sweden. In: GamesIndustry.biz. May 17, 2017, accessed May 18, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Marcel Kleffmann: Paradox Interactive buys Triumph Studios (Overlord, Age of Wonders). In: 4Players . June 30, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Brendan Sinclair: Paradox buys stake in Hardsuit Labs. In: GamesIndustry.biz. January 11, 2018, accessed May 18, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Chris Kerr: Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester is stepping down after nine years. In: Gamasutra . February 13, 2018, accessed May 18, 2018 .
  15. ↑ About Paradox Interactive ( Memento from April 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Paradox Development Studio ( Memento from April 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Organization . On the company website paradoxinteractive.com , accessed on May 18, 2018.
  18. ^ Rashid Sayed: Europa Universalis IV Interview: 'Our Goal is to make it the best PC experience we can' . In: gamingbolt.com , November 22, 2012, accessed April 26, 2016 (English)
  19. ^ Clausewitz Maya Exporter - Information and FAQ . In: forum.paradoxplaza.com , May 2, 2016, accessed on May 18, 2018 (English)
  20. ↑ Imperator: Rome . In: GameStar . Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  21. ^ Johan Andersson: PSA: Imperator is the sequel to EU: Rome . In: Paradox Interactive Forums . June 25, 2018. Retrieved September 29, 2018.