Paradox feel like a company on the move once more, as they build up key partnerships and bring their games to console, and break out or their traditional stable of grand strategy titles. Today they’ve announced the acquisition of Triumph Studios, the dutch studio behing Age of Wonders and the Overlord series.
All of the current team and management will remain with the studio, and existing projects will continue to be developed, simply shifting to be published by Paradox Interactive. While Age of Wonders will likely continue to develop under this new partnership – owned as it is by Triumph – Overlord has a different history and was previously published by Codemasters. It’s not likely to be a part of this deal (and I think I read that it wasn’t, but now can’t find the reference again!)
“We have been approached by others before with an interest to acquire us, but this is not merely a business transaction for us,” said Lennart Sas, CEO and co-founder of Triumph Studios. “This is a liaison with a partner that can help us grow sustainably by ensuring the stability and continuity needed for us to do more of what we do best – develop some of the best turn-based strategy games on the market today.”
“Triumph Studios is a developer of our own heart. They are world-leading within their niche and have built a large and dedicated community over the years, counting quite a few Paradox employees among their hardcore fans. We have great faith in Lennart, Arno and the Triumph team, and our main focus now is to ensure that they can continue to create their magic under new ownership,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO at Paradox Interactive.
Looking to discuss the acquisition, Fred Wester and Lennart Sas will hold a live stream at 3PM UK time this afternoon at twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive.
That said, they’re still prone to the odd mistake. On the eve of the Steam Summer Sale, CEO Fred Wester was forced to apologise and state that the company would be tracking back the price rebalancing they had been quietly putting into action over the last few weeks. These weren’t major adjustments, amounting to games like Tyranny climbing up one or two quid on Steam, but the fact that these changes were not announced in advance and that prices were climbing instead of going down. Wester took to Paradox’s forums to explain the decision and admit that it had been mishandled and would be rolled back as soon as possible.
Source: press release
