Paradox apologizes for "unfair" Crusader Kings 3 DLC with 81% negative reviews

It's rare that trusted developers make such a gargantuan misstep that their entire community turns against them. We saw it with Cyberpunk 2077's abysmal launch, and it took the legendary CD Projekt Red years to rebuild trust with its players. By all accounts, the game is now in a great place, but it took a lot of time and effort to get there. A similar situation has occurred with Paradox Interactive, after the Coronations DLC for Crusader Kings 3 launched in a terrible state. A developer has taken to the Paradox forum to apologize, but it's just the first step on the path to redemption.

The developer refers to themself only as 'Riad,' stating they are a QA Manager for Paradox Development Studio Black, which is working on Crusader Kings 3. They acknowledge that the Coronations DLC "was not up to the standard [players] deserve," and apologize on behalf of the QA team.

A rare misstep for the hit strategy game, Riad goes on to say that the release was "clearly unfair" to the development team and the fans. They cite the fact that the QA team has been pouring "enormous effort" into the forthcoming All Under Heaven expansion, and misallocated resources for other DLC. They say that this isn't an excuse, just an explanation, and fans "have every right to be upset."

The DLC currently sits at just 19% positive reviews on Steam thanks mostly to broken oath mechanics. Neither players nor AI could ever achieve their oaths, granting everyone severe debuffs in perpetuity. However, there were also problems with feasts, bugs, and more. Put simply, players claim that they're paying to make the game worse.

Between this and the recent fiasco involving Bloodlines 2's paywalled clans, Paradox may have lost the last dregs of goodwill that fans may have had for the developer.

Riad's apology, which was published hours after the DLC launch, also comes with patch notes to fix the most egregious problems with Coronations, such as the oaths. The fixes alleviate most of the problems, but there's a long way to go before players will forgive Paradox completely. You can read the full apology and patch notes here.

If Coronations has soured you on Crusader Kings for a while, why not enjoy a palate cleanser from our list of the best medieval games. If you want a different time period, one of the best grand strategy games will have you covered instead.

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