Back in June Paradox Interactive received a lot of criticism for increasing the prices of their games and DLC in certain territories (i.e. everywhere but America), without warning to consumers and in the middle of the Steam Summer Sale. After fans revolted and basically firebombed all of Paradox's Steam reviews Paradox realized they'd made a mistake and apologized. They rolled back all the changes, and said that anyone who'd bought a game from them affected by these price increases would be receiving a free Paradox game as compensation, since partial refunds weren't possible.
Now at the end of August it seems Paradox are finally making good on this and sending out those free games right now.
Cities Skylines: Green Cities Gameplay Reveal – Paradox Interactive shows first footage
Tyranny The Bastard’s Wound Expansion will launch on 7th September
The claim email from Paradox was posted on Reddit. It can be read here:
To receive this claim email for a game bought before the price rollback you would have had to had filled in a form found on Paradox's official forums by August 9, which of course has now passed. Only the games in the offer are eligible so you can't have any random Paradox game, and you'll have them added to your Steam account directly so no CD keys to give away (unless you own literally everything available). Paradox also make it clear that this is only a single offer, so it doesn't matter if you made multiple purchases before the price rollback.
The games available to claim are either one of the following full games:
- Stellaris
- Hearts of Iron IV
- Crusader Kings 2
- Europa Universalis IV
- Magicka 2
- Tyranny
Which to be fair are all excellent, but if you've got them you can choose two DLC packs instead out of:
- HoI IV: Death or Dishonor
- EU IV: Third Rome
- CK II: Monks and Mystics
- Stellaris: Utopia
- Tyranny: Tales from the Tiers
Hopefully this gesture of goodwill will allow gamers the chance to forget this incident. It was definitely something of a PR disaster for Paradox. CEO Fredrik Wester apologized on the forums, saying "in regards to the price changes you are absolutely right. You deserve more transparency and better communication from Paradox when it comes to changing of our prices and pricing policy." He made his own email available for any comments or complaints (fredrik.wester@paradoxplaza.com), adding "All problems/feedback can easily be sent my way, I will not always agree but I promise to listen."
Were you affected by this incident? If so will you be claiming your free game, or are you still angry about the whole thing? Let us know in the comments!
