Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy games have been mainstays on Valve’s Steam storefront for many years. But the company has formed a partnership with the new kid on the block, the Epic Games store, offering Surviving the Aftermath‘s early access version exclusively through Epic’s storefront. From Paradox’s perspective, it’s a matter of the more, the merrier.
Speaking to us at PDXCon, Paradox CEO Ebba Ljungerud said Epic has been great to work with.
“[Epic is] really good to work with,” she said. “They’re very open and attentive. They’re a partner – as is Steam. So it’s been great so far working with them.”
Both Ljungerud and Paradox chief business development officers Shams Jorjani agreed that having more options in the gaming space means better options for both players and developers.
“Probably the best thing to happen to PC gaming in the past 15 years is Valve, hands down,” Jorjani said. “They’re our most important partner and we have a great working relationship with them, but that doesn’t change the fact that, the more things that happen in the industry, the better.”
“Having an ecosystem that is alive and well and moving about is great for everyone,” Jorjani continued. “There’s more technology and engines and platforms to build stuff on and get it out, but that equally makes it incredibly hard to succeed. And if you have only one storefront on one platform, that makes it really hard for a bunch of developers.”
As Jorjani sees it, massive hits like PUBG, Fortnite, and Pokemon Go are all great news, even for a company whose specialty has been relatively niche historical strategy games.
“More people in this space is a force of good,” he said. “It just brings in a ton of more people into gaming, and that’s good for everyone.”
Surviving the Aftermath will be available in early access later today on the Epic Games store.