Europa Universalis 4 Designer Apologizes for Years of Poor DLCs
Paradox's Johan Andersson apologized for years of poor expansions for Europa Universalis 4, culminating in the disastrous Leviathan DLC.
A few weeks ago, the release of the Leviathan expansion for Europa Universalis IV made headlines around the Internet. The expansion was so bad that it became the lowest rated product in Steam's history, with only 10% of player reviews being positive. Since then, the result has become even worse and stands at 7%. Johan Andersson, the game's lead developer, issued an apology to the fan community. Not only did he admit that the latest DLC was weak, but also that over the past few years the quality of expansions for Europa Universalis 4 left a lot to be desired.
Andersson is the head of Paradox Tinto, studio founded in 2020 in Barcelona to support EU4. Leviathan was the first DLC for the game developed by this team. However, the developer has been associated with the game much longer, as he was the main designer of the basic version, also responsible for all the expansions. So it's not like he's apologizing for someone else's faults.
Andersson takes all the blame on himself, as he is the main person responsible for Europa Universalis IV. He admitted that the first poor expansion was the 2018's Golden Century and all subsequent DLCs also left a lot to be desired in terms of quality. The developer now knows that he should have heavily delayed the release of Leviathan to provide the time and resources needed to polish this project. After the release of EU4: Emperor last June, the right thing to do would have been to temporarily suspend support to enable the new team (Paradox Tinto) to take over development duties for that game in peace.
In addition to this public self-flagellation, Andersson also announced what the he intend to do to remedy the situation. The team will focus on fixing bugs, both those from the latest expansion and those present in EU4 for years. Patch 1.31.3 will be released next week, with the next patch scheduled for late May or early June. We can also expect many more updates this year. He stressed that despite the false start, Paradox Tinto is full of talented developers who will ensure a bright future for the game.
