Yes, Paradox are aware that a “barrage of DLCs” can scare away new players, for all their bundles and discounts

If you’ve ever intrepidly looked up a Paradox game, seen a million DLC expansions on the Steam page, and fled screaming into the woods, rest assured that Paradox have you in their eye. It’s doubtful they’re going to change anything about their broad DLC strategy, mind, but they’re aware that some players may feel reluctant to purchase older Paradox games that have dozens of add-ons.

“We’re well aware that if you go in and see a barrage of DLCs, it might be a bit off-putting to buy the game directly if you’re a new gamer, but [like we] mentioned we do bundling to get different types of starter packs, to make it easier to get on board,” commented CEO Fred Wester in the company’s latest financial earnings call with investors. “We also work with pricing in different territories, but also deep discounting and publisher weekends and whatnot. We also have DLC subscriptions on – is it a majority of our games, or at least maybe half of our games?

“So that’s an option as well. You pay a smaller sum to try everything out, and you can do it on a monthly basis. So those are the strategies we’ve tried so far, and they’re working really well. But we continue to to try to make our offerings more appealing to more gamers.”

Why exactly are people put off by DLC barrages? Wester doesn’t spell it out, but for me, the agonising introspective journey goes like this: I do not want to spend all that extra money, but I’m also worried that I’m missing out on something crucial if I stick with the base game – yes, even though Paradox are in the habit of chunky free updates. For all I know, Hearts of Iron 4’s La Résistance expansion is the difference between Pétainist ignominie and Charles-de-Gaullic triomphe.

I could go read some reviews of La Résistance or one of the game’s 25 other add-ons, but that would take several extra minutes of research and this was supposed to be an impulse purchase. ARGH! I’m going to buy a Creative Assembly game instead.

*opens Total War: Warhammer 3 Steam page*

*soul is ejected from body*

I don’t think there’s a way out of this predicament, while Paradox are in the business of making fat stacks over several years by way of paid expansions alongside free updates and re-promotion. Part of it is that Paradox are renowned for ‘long tail’ post-release development, so even a brand new Paradox grand strategy game with a modest handful of preorder cosmetics looks suspect – a submerged Great White waiting to explode from the waves and guzzle you down like some loathsome, cash-strapped, time-poor penguin. Swim penguin, swim! Lest you too accidentally take out a Stellaris subscription.