![]() ![]() Each button or function is displayed with elegant icons, with more detailed menus and information hidden “behind the fold.” Once you get the hang of how to build stuff (I was confused that I had to build bus stops before I could link them together into a closed transportation line), the whole interface is genuinely a joy to navigate. In contrast to such mundane subject matter, the user interface of Cities in Motion is a delight to use. On top of that, you regulate the city’s transportation ticket prices, and you can even buy advertising to build confidence in your company. You can build bus stops, trams that run on light rails, full underground subway systems and even buy water taxis and helicopters to bring customers from apartments and houses to high traffic areas like workplaces, stadiums and airports. Cities in Motion is a modern day version of that sub-game where you run the mass transportation systems in one of four European cities: Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin, and Amsterdam. In those games you could build roads, highways and subways, but the details were always a bit abstracted. ![]() Wester and Paradox are betting that the new directions into free to play MMOs ( Salem), collectible card games ( Hearts of Iron: The Card Game) and even action adventure games ( Pirates of Black Cove, Magicka) will insure that the company continues to grow.įor anyone who’s interested in where strategy PC gaming is headed in 2011, here is what’s on the docket for Paradox Interactive in the coming year:įor many gamers, the best part of games like SimCity and its many sequels was mapping out the mass transportation systems. ![]() As a PC gamer at heart, I’m certainly psyched for the continued success of the platform and the strategy genre for which Paradox is known.īut as the lineup for 2011 and beyond proves, the company is not content with just designing and publishing plain old strategy games. No one thought that digital distribution would overtake retail as fast as it did, but Paradox launched its GamersGate online store in 2006, and Wester reported that today GamersGate accounts for nearly 70 percent of Paradox’s total revenue. In the face of such naysaying, games like Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron sold like gangbusters and Paradox’s revenues have grown over 1000 percent since 2001. When he joined the company back in 2003, everyone told him that PC gaming was dead and that hardcore strategy games as a genre was on its way out of fashion. The festivities opened with the CEO of Paradox Interactive, Fredrik Wester, describing all of the accomplishments that the company has achieved over the last decade in the face of skepticism from the rest of the industry. Last week, I was invited to New York City to attend the Paradox Convention 2011 to see all of the games that the Stockholm based PC game developer and publisher had lined up for the coming year. ![]()
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