Crusader Kings 2 Moving to “Free To Play” Model in June
Everybody who’s anybody in the strategy gaming world knows Crusader Kings 2. Like any good strategy game, it’s spawned narrative Let’s Plays (Including one which featured a Rap Battle, Flamboyant Schemers), stories of gambits succeeded and lost, and even moments where the game’s logic is a little strict or loose have spawned their own fantastic tales, such as vassals who conquered the rest of the world while their liege did… Well, nothing.
But the gaming world was shocked at the announcement that the game, already rich with DLC, was going “Free to Play”. In a way, it was almost a betrayal. But, our source at Paradox states, an inevitable one.
“Even though our downloadable content has often been rich in additions, and we have a reputation for listening to our players… They still weren’t satisfied. We thought about donating to Tarn Adams, maybe employ him to create an all encompassing DLC for Crusader Kings 2, but that was a dead end. [laugh] Dwarf Fortress really is his life project, so he politely declined, and, as developers who love games, we respect that.”
“So, in the end, we decided to take our modular design philosophy with Crusader Kings 2 to its logical progression.”
At this point in the presentation, all seemed sensible. All was right with the world. But it was not to last.
“The core of the game, as we see it, is the conquest and the economics, centred on South Africa, so this will be the free to play content, with micropayments unlocking a variety of features: Europe, marriage, colonisation (New World is included, don’t worry about that!), with the higher level strategic content (Religion, plots, european and muslim technology, and breeding) obviously costing a little more. It’s a fairly complex game, but it can be broken down into simple elements, and, beyond the conquest… Not a lot of those elements are really necessary, at least as far as the larger demographic shows. Everybody wants to rule the world. Not so many people are fond of the… responsibilities of rulership. So they can now have all of the fun, but very little of the responsibility.”
Crusader Kings 2: Online will be released in June 2015. The UI will largely remain unchanged.