Paradox Interactive - Solving Paradox

Polygon has an interesting article about how the historical strategy game maker Paradox has stayed in business as long as they have.

Over the last decade Paradox Interactive has earned a mixed reputation. The Swedish developer is known primarily for its unique brand of deep historical simulation games that take a long time to master but allow players experiences that can't be found elsewhere.

But it seems that for every well-reviewed epic strategy title, Paradox releases a buggy, broken mess. One step forward, two steps back. Take for instance a two month period from 2012.

In February of that year Paradox released Crusader Kings 2, perhaps its most successful in-house effort to date. It's one of the company's best-reviewed games, reaching beyond the strategy niche to be nominated as one of game site Kotaku's best of the year.

Just a month later Paradox published a game called Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, a blend of real-time-strategy and first-person shooting. Programmed almost entirely by one person, the online game was released in an unplayable state. Its Metacritic average review rating currently is an abominable 22, the lowest of any Paradox title.

Heavy weighs the head of Fredrik Wester, the CEO who wears the crown at Paradox Interactive.

"Changing a games company is like turning ... a big battle cruiser," Wester says. "What I think is that in [2014] you're going to see even better improvement than that. We're on the right path, but we still have a very long way to go."