It's still coming out, but not on Game Pass
Here's a bit of a strange one! You may remember that Victoria 3 was announced by Paradox Interactive for PC Game Pass at some point later in 2022, but unfortunately that's no longer the case.
As revealed on the official Paradox forums, the company has decided to withdraw its involvement in Game Pass with Victoria 3 "after discussion with our partners", which means the game will now be a Steam exclusive:
"The game will be a Steam exclusive at the release - after discussion with our partners it was decided that Victoria 3 won't be a part of Game Pass or Microsoft Store."
Victoria 3 was first announced for Game Pass back in May of 2021, but was once again mentioned in a Game Pass roundup in June 2022, so this must be a pretty recent decision to avoid Game Pass and go Steam exclusive.
The company did mention that it "look[s] forward to sharing more details on our next partnership with Xbox in the future", pointing out that the likes of Crusader Kings III, Stellaris, Shadowrun Trilogy and Hearts of Iron IV are all already playable on the service for console and/or PC. Fair enough!
FYI, Victoria 3 will officially be released on October 25th, 2022 — but yes, it's a Steam exclusive now.
Were you looking forward to Victoria 3 on Game Pass? Let us know down in the comments below.
[source forum.paradoxplaza.com, via trueachievements.com]
Fraser has an unhealthy obsession for all things related to Telltale Games' The Walking Dead series, and has an intimate knowledge of sports games on Xbox. He also supports Walsall FC – that team in the West Midlands you've never heard of.
Interesting. Is this because talks with MS fell through, or because talks with Valve stepped up? Historically, Valve has never been one to push for games to be 'Steam exclusive', at least not in a way anyone was really aware of. I wonder if this is finally a sign of Valve getting ready to start tossing it's weight around to defend it's empire. There's a whoooooole lotta competition in the PC space these days.
Maybe Valve offered more money
Pass then. Yea this is all I have to add
Paradox making some odd choices lately. Think they're losing favour with a lot of their fanbase.
I'm a big fan of Victoria 2 and paradox so I will still be checking this out.
Paradox is just a weird publisher. They have a ton of games but all of them look like third rate budget titles. I'll mostly just forever remember them as the company that, for years, spammed me almost daily about Prison Architect, and I have no idea how they ever even got my email because I'm pretty sure I've never had anything to do with them, ever.
@NEStalgia There you are! We've been trying to reach you about Prison Architect. Would you like to know more??
I rather liked Victoria 2 in it's time.. seems like a business deal falling through, happens all the time. Maybe they announced GP release on a handshake deal. Anyway, wouldn't blame it on either side or devalue anyone without further context.
I am a big paradox fan. I own most of their mainline strategy games and their different offerings like I own all the hearts of iron games and EU games as well as all the CK and Vicky games and I just preordered this last night. However, lately especial with EU they have been doing a ***** job getting their releases out without massive game breaking bugs. I do appreciate the sub service for EU my wife can play with me and her own games without having to spend hundreds of dollars on the xpansions.
How odd. Regardless of the reasoning, they really shouldn't be announcing it for the service unless it's set in stone, imo.
Given it's not coming to the Microsoft store at all, wonder if they're having trouble getting it into the format for it in time for launch
Guess uncle Phil didn't want to cut that big of a check
@SplooshDmg As you say, given that Steam don't do the exclusive game thing and even take snipes at Epic for it, it's likely that the relationship with MS broke down. @Widey85 might be onto something when they mention that it might be about UWP for Windows Store. I thought MS had dropped that requirement (and actually deprecated UWP entirely) but a look at the documentation, updated in June, implies that it's still a requirement.
Dang! I was looking forward to that game. I bought Crusader Kings III. I like to play strategy games, too, in addition to games in other genres.
@BartoxTharglod Yeah, there's been talks of UWP going the way of the dodo, and it's just never happened. But yeah, Widey could be onto something.
@SplooshDmg UWP is already gone. It only gets security updates now, the SDK is no longer updated with new features. And Game Engines such as Game Maker have now removed the ability to export in the UWP format.
You use the Windows App SDK to create games for the MS Store and Xbox now, not UWP. Xbox also has the GDK which most developers use, and physical games must use.
UWP apps are still accepted, but support for it is poor when developing, as 3rd-parties are starting to pull it out of their catalogues.
Either way I doubt that's a reason, as Paradox has many many games on MS Store, such as EU4, CK3, Stellaris, Cities Skylines, Hearts of Iron. Likely they didn't get what they wanted from MS in terms of the lump sum GP titles get offered, so they just pulled it entirely.
@Xeno_Aura Ahh that explains it. I knew I had heard for a while that UWP wasn't going to be a requirement anymore, which I guess was just part of the greater push of finally building out the Windows Store. What you're saying makes good sense, though.
@Hexamex-Tex I don't think they care seen as you obviously wasn't going to buy the game anyway lol
Don't think I've often heard a third party game outed as a steam exclusive before. This is a bad precedent though, might be just this game for all we know but it makes me wonder if any other previously announced game will just not appear on the service.
@Would_you_kindly obviously. However on Gamepass I would have checked it out. Purchase? Why? Not like there is a shortage of games.
I'm more of a Kalypso guy, but to each their own.
Was it them or MS that originally claimed it would be on XGP?
@Hexamex-Tex & if they decide to release a demo you can still try it
@Would_you_kindly yeah generally not interested in demos but maybe. I have more games than time. They advertised this as a Gamepass game then changed at the last minute. So whatever.
"after valve gave us more money than we could grasp" There, fixed.
@Glare If you are interested in game why dont you buy it then?
@Neverwild I don't like to waste money on a game that I will not play because I don't like the game, so I like to try them out or see gameplay videos before I buy the game.
And precisely zero ***** were given
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