Is anyone else puzzled by Pdox's half-hearted 'rollout' of Hearts of Iron IV?

[sandman2575]

Not sure how many folks around here are looking forward to HoI4 -- I for one can't wait (...in theory).  But I am increasingly puzzled by Pdox's lackluster promotion of what is supposed to be one of their biggest franchises, that's supposed to release in Q2 2015 (4-5 months, give or take).

Does anyone else get the sense that Pdox's push for this game has been somewhat less than enthusiastic?  It seems nothing like the buildup that preceded launch of Europa Universalis IV.  There seemed to be huge energy behind that -- ample dev diaries, lots of sneak peeks offered to the community -- just a palpable sense of excitement on the part of the devs and community alike.

HOI4 feels nothing like this to me.  Dev diaries have been sparse. Screenshots few and far between. About one known video of Alpha gameplay, which was hardly extensive.  The whole thing just strikes me as increasingly odd.

Yes, they've still got some months to go -- but they announced HoI4 in Jan. 2014... and the energy level has been weirdly lacking...

[JudgeDredd]

I honestly can't say I have been following it. Would I buy it when it came out? Probably. Would I play it? Probably not  ;)

[sandman2575]

Remember your New Year's resolution, JD!  Be strong!

Seriously though -- check out Pdox's forums mainpage -- there's oodles and oodles about EUIV and CKII, and a single post about HOI4 (about its delay, in fact).  It's been this way for months.  It just seems like EUIV and CKII are way higher on Pdox's priority list, at least as far as marketing and PR are concerned --

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/

[JudgeDredd]

But hasn't HoI always been a bit of a poison chalice for Paradox? I mean they always ALWAYS seem to get a lot of stick for it...any release but most notably HoI3 iirc.

Maybe they're just being cautious

[TacticalWargames]

Maybe the series has come to it's end and people becoming a little jaded...

CK2 and EUIV I think have become their main products now I reckon..esp CK2.

[JudgeDredd]

I don't get what others see in CK2...I really don't. Bland and very little "going on" - and I guess the "going on" is subjective.

EUIV on the other hand is a superbly deep game that doesn't get nearly enough attention from me.

And I really like HoI2 - actually got going on a campaign (though never finished it...shocker)...but I did like it. HoI3 looked very washed and bland. I did not like the interface at all.

[Greybriar]

I will most likely buy Hearts of Iron IV. But due to Paradox's infatuation with DLC, I won't be buying HoI4 until after it has been out for awhile and a compilation pack goes on sale with the base game and all its DLC for at least 50% off.

[sandman2575]

It's probably true that Pdox catches a lot more flack for HoI than its other games.  CKII seems universally beloved (understandably -- I think it's their best game to date); EUIV seems well beloved, with grumbling from vocal minorities about how each new patch unbalances something and makes the game 'unplayable'  ::)  But clearly, between the positive response to CKII and EUIV, Pdox has built up a reservoir of good feelings after the extremely bumpy launch (debacle?) of HoI3.  HoI3 became a very good game with the expansions, but the initial response was justifiably negative.

Still, in light of that, I'd think Pdox would be trying all the harder to gin up excitement for HoI4. The fact that they're not leads me to suspect the game's development is not going smoothly. The push-back for the launch is surely part of that.

EDIT -- I see from JD that CKII is not, in fact, universally beloved   :)

[JudgeDredd]

...EDIT -- I see from JD that CKII is not, in fact, universally beloved   :)

Yeah - I don't get it. I seem to be one of the few!

[Huw the Poo]

On a personal level, I'm really excited for HoI4 because it's going to support Linux so I'll actually be able to play it. :D

With regard to the original question, I dunno, 4-5 months is nearly half a year.  I would expect the marketing machine to ramp up in 6-8 weeks.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

...EDIT -- I see from JD that CKII is not, in fact, universally beloved   :)

Yeah - I don't get it. I seem to be one of the few!

It's not just you.  I keep trying to play it and buying more DLC but I just cannot get into it.  Nothing really interesting ever seems to happen.  You get your economy or military rolling, then someone or another snuffs it, everything gets screwed up and you're back to square one.  Then you spend the next two hours running the game at max time compression, hiring tutors, looking for stat boosting brides, reading pointless pop up boxes, and hoping your idiot council members actually succeed in their assigned task.

[sandman2575]

I think all Pdox games have this problem, to greater or lesser degree -- the 'OK nothing is happening now what the hell am I supposed to do next' experience. They're so open-ended that the onus is really on the player to direct events & 'forge your own destiny' rather than respond to random happenings (although there's no shortage of that as well). 

I tend to avoid Pdox games entirely if I'm not mentally geared up for a game. They're mentally demanding, not in the sense that they're especially hard to play, but in the sense that you've got to be feeling creative in order to get fun out of them.

[fabius]

HoI4 They've been ambitious and had to roll back the date. I'm not concerned because A. it's one of their flagship titles; and B. They have made a real focus on release  quality in recent times and regularly re-state this commitment. Even cancelling 3rd party titles because of it.

EUIV is great.

CK2. I've struggle to get into it. Have started to get into it after watching Game of Throne left me pumped for that sort of period, but still think I'll drift back to EU4.

Don't forget Victoria 2, it's very good.


Edited- I'd love to see them do a modern; Cold War or Rome game next.

[Jarhead0331]

Edited- I'd love to see them do a modern; Cold War or Rome game next.

They were doing a cold war game and it got cancelled.

Also, they've done Rome before, and although it was an ok game, I agree, it could be wonderful if they gave it the EUIV/CKII treatment.

[JasonPratt]

Remember your New Year's resolution, JD!  Be strong!

Easy enough to do in this case: they won't have it feasibly patched and DLC'd up until sometime next year. :)