The developers of Paradox Interactive are considered strategy genius with historical 4x games such as Crusader Kings 3. But with your DLC strategy you now harvest passive-aggressive reactions from fans. Finally, an announcement at Crusader Kings 3 on Steam was not well received.
That is the situation: The strategy game Crusader Kings 3 is expanded with 4 DLCs per year. The large extensions already cost € 30. A chapter pass that contains all 4 extensions, skin with € 44.
If you want to buy all 18 DLCs, you will be on Steam with € 174 and still put 50 € for the basic game. For Europe Universalis IV, all DLCs even pay € 370.
In the past, Crusader Kings 3 still had free free, cosmetic updates. But for a while, paradox interactive content has been published as a content creator pack. So far these have been only cosmetic things that Paradox Interactive sold for € 5 in the package
But players don’t think anything about that.
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Crusader Kings 3 announces new packages for 5 €
This is now the new announcement: On February 13, 2025, Paradox Interactive announced two new “Content Creator Packs”, which will come to Crusader Kings 3 on February 25 (via Steam):
A pack contains 20 new monuments. They work similarly to “miracles” in Civilization 7 and give special bonuses for the owners of the respective county in which the monument is located. In the basic game there are monuments such as the Stonehenge, with the expansion the Wartburg, the large mosque of Damascus or a palace in Ghana.
In addition, the “Arctic Attire” pack appears and brings some outfits for Finnish tribes.
There is no price for these packs yet, but you can assume that they will cost € 5 again, like the last pack. That also gave really trouble.
Fans react with passive-aggressive compliments
That is the reaction to Steam: Several Steam users react with the extremely nasty sentence:
“Thank you, I really know to appreciate that you offer it for free.”
That was the first comment. And the sentence is repeated again and again. He is – and the users also know that – nonsense.
Because the content creator pack will cost something, but people do not agree. The sentence implies: “This content should be free-or if there is no other way, at least part of the chapter pass.”
That answers paradox: A spokesman says: The packages will have the same costs as before. It is about participating content creators in your work.
A drop that makes the barrel overflowed for some
Why is the topic difficult? These packages are compared to “Skins in Fortnite”, which you sell for € 5.
It’s just a difficult thing for players:
Ultimately, players do not want to pay for anything that is only cosmetic and does not introduce new systems. On the other hand, they want to have the game completely and find the idea that they escape content either. Especially because cosmetic updates were always free before, the idea is uncomfortable to pay for specific content now. And that despite the fact that the annual tax for the further development of the game by buying the chapter passport: Strategy game has more players than the last 2.5 years-fans love new DLC, which makes it even more role-playing