14 DAY TRIAL // The Chief Executive Officer of Paradox Interactive, Fredrik Wester, believes that games that want to win over fans need to have a clearly defined niche, a solid number of hardcore fans, and need to offer a way for the community to express its allegiance in the long term.
The executive tells Gamasutra that one of the reasons for the success of his company’s Magicka release was the easy to notice cloaked wizard figure that appeared in the promotional efforts, which plenty of gamers then used as a template in cosplay.
Wester states, “If your game was a book, what would it be about? Would it be funny, sad, ironic? What would be the actual feeling when you finish it, what does the reader take with them to the sequel? If your game was a movie, who would be the ‘lead actors’?”
Paradox Interactive was originally known for its grand strategy franchises, like Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis, but in the last few years the company has sought other developers it can work with in order to cover new genres.
The next Magicka title will be launched on the PlayStation 4 from Sony and the company might also be working to port other franchises to home consoles in the future.
Wester says that promotional efforts should reflect the character of the title players are getting access to.
He adds, “For our historical games it's harder, but Hearts of Iron is a very deep strategy game. We use Douglas MacArthur as our main character, so if you want to cosplay Hearts of Iron, you'd probably go as Douglas MacArthur.”
The executive also believes that a simple way for smaller studios to differentiate themselves from bigger companies is to focus on support and on interactions with the player base.
He also reveals that he sometimes sits down to write abusive replies to angry e-mails coming from gamers, only to then delete them.
The big project for Paradox Interactive at the moment is Hearts of Iron IV, which is set to be launched in early 2015 on the PC.
The grand strategy title takes gamers back to World War II and allows them to either recreate the historical conflict or to use their freedom and a range of new mechanics in order to change the results.
Expansions for Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II are also set to be revealed soon, during Gamescom 2014.