Europa Universalis 4: Leviathan’s rough launch state saw the expansion quickly finding a spot among the worst rated games on Steam. Responding to fan backlash, developer Paradox Tinto has channeled its efforts towards patches addressing various bugs and issues, Patch 1.31.3 being the third one expected to launch tomorrow.
As efforts to fix the expansion continues, Paradox Tinto Studio Manager and Europa Universalis IV Game Director Johan Andersson has also issued an apology while detailing how the developer’s plans have shifted for the remainder of 2021.
“Leviathan was one of the worst releases we have had, and follows a long trail of low-quality releases starting back with Golden Century for EU4,” Andersson wrote on the Paradox forums before taking full responsibility for the DLC’s launch state.
“I should have delayed the start of the development of Leviathan until we had all the resources that were needed, and they had time to properly onboard on the project. We should have announced a break in the development of EU4 after the Emperor release, until we had a team ready to start designing and working early in 2021.”
“We are partially changing our plans for the rest of the year. We had originally planned to fix all legacy bugs before we stop developing further expansions for EU4. Now we are accelerating these plans, and also making sure that the community will be getting them frequently,” he continued.
Patch 1.31.3 launches later this week, on May 12, according to Paradox Interactive CEO Ebba Ljungerud who shared the date during today’s Q1 financial report livestream. A fourth patch is set to release towards the end of May or the beginning of June, with several others coming throughout the rest of 2021.
“This is of course a rough first expansion for the team and the studio, but it’s far from the end. We have recruited a set of great individuals, with a huge passion for the game, to form Paradox Tinto, giving us a bright future for Europa Universalis,” Andersson’s post concludes.
During the livestream linked above, Ljungerud pointed out that the team has “worked day and night” to “get the DLC up to par with where we wanted to be.” She also acknowledged Paradox Tinto’s status as a new studio, saying that it needs “time to breathe” and analyze what went wrong with Europa Universalis 4: Leviathan.
Like with all releases, the publisher will also do a post-mortem, analyzing both the DLC’s good and bad parts, which will then inform how Europa Universalis will be handled going forward.
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