Paradox celebrates Victoria 3's Steam review comeback, but isn't stopping there

A new Victoria 3 dev diary from Paradox Interactive marks a long-pursued milestone for the historical grand strategy game. First launched in October 2022, it's been suffering from the 'mixed' user rating for almost three years, but no longer. Finally, in the wake of numerous updates, fixes, and most recently the lauded patch 1.9 and Charters of Commerce DLC, Victoria 3 Steam reviews are 'mostly positive' across its lifetime, ticking over the 70% average required to move into the blue. Paradox isn't stopping there, however, sharing new plans and updates for its future roadmap.

"I do want to take a moment to reflect on the release of 1.9 and Charters of Commerce," Victoria 3 game director Martin 'Wizzington' Anward writes in a new blog. "And what can I really say except that I am absolutely blown away by its reception." The trade-focused expansion has proven a serious winner, and combined with the free update has completed Victoria 3's long journey back into contention for one of our best grand strategy games.

"This is of course something we have been working towards ever since the release of the game by addressing the community's feedback and constructive criticisms, one time at a time," Anward continues. "It hasn't always been an easy road, but we never had any intention of giving up on Vicky, and clearly, neither did you. The future of Victoria 3 has never looked brighter, and we have all of you to thank for it."

Anward adds that, "Just as it's important to learn from your mistakes, it's equally important to look at your successes so that you can try and repeat them." With regards to patch 1.9 and Charters of Commerce, he highlights the trade rework's "good balance between autonomous actors and player control," something he wants to use as a guideline for potential redesigns to systems such as production methods on privately owned building levels.

This more robust trade system also helped to improve the performance of the game's AI-controlled factions, Anward says, "removing much of the samey-ness present in the old, autarky-centric economic loop." He adds that the team "spent extra effort on ensuring that the features of 1.9 and Charters of Commerce would all hook heavily into and complement each other, which made them individually much stronger.

"While we're very happy with how everything's gone, we're not just planning to rest on our laurels," Anward remarks. "There are still many things about the game we want to improve and expand on, so let's get to talking about that." He shares an updated roadmap featuring the four core pillars of military, historical immersion, diplomacy, and internal politics, along with a reminder that this focuses on changes and features planned for free updates, and is not an exhaustive list of the things being worked on.

Among the new additions, you'll spot a desire to "Make generals and admirals into more meaningful and notable actors." The simulation of historical conflicts such as the Opium Wars and American Civil War are on the workshop table as Paradox looks to bring them closer to their real-life counterparts. On the diplomacy side, it's aiming to rework War Exhaustion into a system where war goal control and outcomes are more dynamic and interesting, and with fewer frustrations.

"As is always and forever the case I'm not able to make specific promises about when all these improvements will come out, but I can say that the next three updates (1.10, 1.11, and 1.12), which are all coming out later this year, will be smaller in scale than 1.9 and more focused on bug fixing, quality of life, and general game polish," Anward concludes.

Signing off for now, Anward leaves us with a little tease of what else the future might hold: "You may have noticed that there's not too much added to the plans this time around, and if you choose to believe that's because some longstanding, boat-shaped things may be looming on the horizon beyond 1.12, all I can say is [words drowned out by a very loud foghorn]."

If you've decided now is the time to give the rejuvenated GSG a try, you're in luck. Victoria 3 is 70% off in a Steam sale until Thursday July 10, meaning you'll pay just $14.99 / £12.59, or $32.49 / £27.25 for the starter edition including three additional pieces of DLC. Take a look right here and put your management skills to the test.

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