Grand Strategy Isn’t Just for PCs Anymore – Announcing Stellaris: Console Edition

Paradox Interactive has long been known as a developer and publisher that makes a very specific kind of game extremely well. In doing so, we’ve helped establish the category of grand strategy games (GSG) and continue to create exciting new entries to the genre as well as support beloved classics. For the uninitiated, a grand strategy game is a game where players control a nation over hundreds of in-game years and influence its success through military, economic, political, and diplomatic means.

One core concept to our organization that has kept us able to deliver these experiences is that we are never afraid to take chances and try new things (and we have a strong community that has our backs). When Paradox was just starting out, we were a tiny company with “Livin’ on a Prayer” as our unofficial theme song, which should tell you everything you need to know about how uncertain things were. But those risks paid off for us and Paradox has grown along with its community of players. Now, we have the resources available to explore concepts we could never have hoped to in the past. It is in this spirit that we decided to look into bringing the first ever grand strategy game to consoles!

As we’ve never developed a PDS game for consoles, we brought in the expertise of Tantalus Media who are helping to translate our popular sci-fi title, Stellaris, for consoles. Stellaris, which of course is the latest of our GSGs, lends itself better to being translated to the console platforms, so it became natural for us to start with that game. Since Stellaris is asymmetrical strategy game (where every player starts on equal terms), as opposed to most of our other games that are asymmetrical (France vs Ulm in EU4), we believe it is easier to get into and more suitable to introduce people to the genre.

We love grand strategy games and think console gamers would enjoy it as well! So, we’re taking the plunge to provide the true GSG experience with only minor interface changes to adapt to controller play. This includes DLC support, which we’ll be rolling out in the months following launch starting with the Plantoids Species Pack, Leviathans Story Pack, and the Utopia Expansion. It is our aim to be able to bring the Paradox experience to as many people as possible!

We’re looking to take a step to widen the view of what can be considered a console game by bringing the first ever true GSG to the platform. We hope that strategy gamers who enjoy playing on consoles, as well as players new to the genre, will both enjoy taking on Stellaris in a whole new way.