The director of Stellaris is now working on a new “secret project” at Paradox. Updates on the space-based 4X will continue under new leadership, but Martin Anward is moving on to become game director on a new Paradox Development Studio title. Despite cries of “Victoria 3” from the fan community, we don’t yet have a confirmation – or even a hint – about what that game will be.
Stellaris will now be stewarded by Daniel Moregård, who has been a game designer on the title for close to three years. The 4X game has been getting substantial expansions roughly every half-year – give or take a couple months – and it seems we can expect further updates to continue. (Paradox is certainly happy to keep bringing out DLC, after all.)
As for what Anward is working on next, that’s – again – a matter of pure speculation. Paradox fans have been begging for a Victoria 3 for ages, but the only thing we know for sure is that the Imperator: Rome release date is set for 2019. Whatever’s after that is something we won’t know for a while, though given how other recent Paradox reveals have gone, the most likely place for an announcement will be PDXCON 2019.
“It has been an absolute privilege on work with the Stellaris dev team,” Anward says on Twitter, “a team of passionate, dedicated and talented individuals, on a game that I love. I will miss Stellaris a lot, but it’s a good feeling to be able to leave the project knowing that it is in such good hands.”
This move has been planned since a long time back, and I am still very much staying at Paradox Development Studio as a Game Director, I am just moving over to another, secret project.
— Martin Anward (@Martin_Anward) December 13, 2018
Paradox continually makes a home on our list of the best strategy games on PC, so Anward’s next project will have a lot to live up to. Given how Stellaris came out, there’s plenty of reason to be excited.