Urban Games' Transport Fever franchise may not be the most famous strategy-sim around, but with over 10,000 Steam user reviews, I dare say it's bigger than some give it credit for. The first two games were published by Good Shepherd Entertainment, which is primarily responsible for some lesser-known fare. Certainly, the company is not the industry giant that Paradox Interactive apparently is.
Paradox Interactive, however, has officially secured the publishing rights for the upcoming Transport Fever 3. While Urban Games' Steam post announcement emphasizes that the move was made with players in mind, it's no surprise that the wider fanbase met the news with enthusiasm. Paradox, however, has an approach to post-launch microtransactions that could change the sequel's long-term trajectory to a more nickel-and-diming approach. Not exactly a comforting thought.
All aboard the DLC Express?
Of course, Urban Games insists that things don't change. And maybe they don't – really, we don't know. But fans can't be blamed for looking at notable examples from the past. We live in a world where getting the full version of Stellaris, Paradox's grand space opera strategy sim, requires forking over hundreds of dollars. Even when everything is on sale.
Contrast this with the remarkably consumer-friendly approach of Urban Games and Good Shepherd Entertainment. This stuff just hasn't aired with any existing Transport Fever title. I don't envy the company's community manager today, having to sift through hundreds of rationally-founded concern posts, and you'd better believe them when they say the following statement. But even with the high probability that they themselves believe it now, we currently lack hard evidence that Paradox will, apparently, not do Paradox at all in Transport Fever 3.
Responding to a level-headed comment in the thread above from Redditor gman1647, Urban Games' community manager made the potentially reassuring claim that “[their] Plans for both games remain unchanged after the run-up and launch.” Likewise, not everyone is going to be convinced that those plans will be anything like Europa Universalis IV until the game is out.
For the uninitiated, the full version of Europa Universalis IV is $203.99 at this point. And, it's 40 percent off. Note, you can subscribe to the game for $7.99 a month to get access to all of this, which honestly isn't that bad… but None of this Transport fever is encoded in DNA. The second game, which is seven years old, can be purchased for $39.99 or $47.99 for the deluxe edition. That… this. That's all she wrote.
That's why fans love the current business model. Here's hoping it's not about to disappear forever.
The GameStop CEO claimed he was suspended from eBay, but it could just be a weird stunt
This whole dialect saga is strange.
