Paradox Interactive Reports Significant Growth in Revenue for 2020

Even with the pandemic in 2020, many video game companies saw record profits driven by people who needed something to do while staying at home. The Swedish-based Paradox Interactive has released its financials for 2020, reporting an increase of revenue compared to previous years.

Paradox Interactive is a video game publisher behind titles like the space-faring grand strategy game Stellaris, the mafia-sim Empire of Sin, and Crusader Kings III. It also currently owns the rights to the World of Darkness franchise, which includes properties like Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Wraith: The Oblivion, which is getting a VR title later this year. Paradox isn’t the main developer and publisher on all of the game adaptations of these properties, but it is the publisher for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.

In the report, Paradox Interactive announced its revenue for 2020 increased by 39% compared to the previous year, with the company reaching about $217 million in revenue. Even though the company saw a decrease in profits in Q4, the overall year for Paradox was considered a success. Both the monthly players of Paradox titles as well as the number of Paradox account holders increased in 2020.

Also in 2020, Paradox saw the release of the highly-reviewed Crusader Kings III, which will continue to receive content updates through its expansion pass. However, even though Paradox invested more into game development in 2020 with about $73.9 million, many of the games' development cycles were negatively affect by COVID-19. CEO Ebba Ljungerud even revealed that Paradox cancelled a game toward the end of the year that hadn't even been announced.

Ljungerud also commented on the reception of Empire of Sin, saying the company wasn't satisfied with the game's launch. Perhaps the biggest blow to Paradox Interactive was the continuously troubled development of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The game had been in development for several years, and was finally planned to release in 2020 before ultimately being delayed into 2021. Just recently, Paradox has removed the developer from the project, delaying the game even further.

Looking on the bright side, Paradox Interactive should enjoy its successful year, but should find ways to continue the company's growth going forward.

Crusader Kings 3 has been one of the biggest titles featured on Xbox Game Pass for PC this year, with the strategy game allowing players to step into the shoes of a ruler with an astonishing amount of mechanical depth. While Crusader Kings 3 reviews were positive overall, the game did launch without the ability to create one's own ruler from scratch, though that's been changed in a recent update.

Highlighted by a new video released by Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings 3's developer, the character customization feature offers a ton of options. While the video itself clocks in at just under a minute, viewers get to see a decent amount of the character creation process, which seems to allow players to customize even the minutia of their character's look. There's a slider for just about everything, so there will undoubtedly be options to make fine-looking characters, along with any whacky ones players might want to create.