Paradox Interactive, publisher of grand strategy and management games including Cities: Skylines, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings, has added Prison Architect to its portfolio.
Rather than acquire the developer, Introversion Software, Paradox has bought the rights to the Prison Architect IP alone. Paradox says the acquisition allows it “to continue development of Prison Architect going forward, and to explore opportunities with the wider ‘Architect’ IP in the future.”
Paradox are well-practised at extending their games with a long tail of thoughtful, value-adding DLC. We can expect the company to get the most out of Prison Architect, a much-loved and BAFTA-award winning game that is still marred by the occasional bug. Paradox could well use the Architect brand to release spin-offs in different settings, and continue the exciting revival of the management sim that we’ve seen in recent years.
“We’ve been building and managing this building-and-management game for nearly a decade,” says Introversion co-founder Mark Morris. “I think we’ve taken Prison Architect just about as far as we can, and we’re all eager to see where a team like Paradox can take it next! This also gives Introversion the chance to work on what we’ve got coming up next – more on that soon.”
“Ever since our partnership with Introversion in 2017, the Paradox team has felt that Prison Architect is a natural fit for our catalogue,” says Ebba Ljungerud, Paradox CEO. “We promise to exercise good behavior with this cherished title going forward.”
Related: check out our list of the best management games on PC
For more details on the acquisition, you can check out the press release here.
Please give a warm welcome to Prison Architect which is now joining the Paradox library of games! We're very excited for the future of this game.
Tomorrow at 5pm CEST we will be holding a small Q&A on Facebook+Twitter to answer any questions you might have. See you there! pic.twitter.com/FZ1wUzDX2c
— Paradox Interactive (@PdxInteractive) January 8, 2019
Prison Architect has sold over two million copies across PC and console. If you’re yet to get in on the riot-controlling fun, you can check it out on Steam here. Paradox is promising “a small Q&A” to answer any further questions about the acquisition – if you’d like to ask anything, it kicks off at 17:00 CEST (16:00 GMT, 08:00 Pacific) tomorrow on Facebook and Twitter.