Paradox Interactive Bringing Grand Strategy Titles To Life As Board Games
Game developer Paradox Interactive has licensed four different IP to turn into new board game experiences.
There's hot news incoming for game fans with a penchant for the occasional tabletop experience: as revealed over the weekend at PDXCon in Stockholm, electronic entertainment development studio Paradox Interactive has licensed four of its different video game intellectual properties to turn into new board games.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, Paradox took to the convention floor to showcase physical board game versions of Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, and Cities: Skylines, the likes of which were all in various stages of the development process. Shams Jorjani, vice president of business development for Paradox, says the new games present an opportunity for experiences like Europa Universalis to go back to their tabletop roots.
"Europa Universalis started out as a board game, and [creative director Johan Andersson] took it into the digital space," Jorjani said. "Board games have always been very popular with everyone in the company. It's just that our business has always been focused on building our digital growth, and you don't plan on doing anything except for being that kind of company."
Jorjani went on to say that studio fans expressed a strong interest in the company creating different board games based on their digital games, which sparked a change in thinking about how Paradox might make the most out of its various IP.
"Paradox Interactive is about making digital games, and doing cool stuff with our IP in the digital space," he said. "It just got to the point where it became so abundantly clear that there [were] so many cool opportunities. People were coming to us in droves asking if we could make board games. We looked at that and said this is a a really cool way not necessarily to make tons and tons of money... But to expand what our IPs are and how people play them."
The GamesIndustry.biz report states the four different IP licenses will create four entirely different games from four different companies. Jorjani stated that each of the games will be extensively tested by the Paradox crew, making sure that they all align with the electronic version in specific ways — "you can still marry your horse in Crusader Kings" was one mentioned highlight. Free League has taken the Crusader Kings board game to Kickstarter, but as for the progress on the rest of the games and their related release dates, we'll have to wait and see.
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