Empire of Sin is set in Prohibition Chicago. It’s one of the Paradox games that the publisher would prefer not to talk about today.
Paid money and no goods received: Empire of Sin’s Expansion Pass remains a major annoyance to this day. Anyone who bought the mafia game with XCOM influences in 2020 is still waiting for the second promised add-on.
Now we at publisher Paradox Interactive have followed up on behalf of the disappointed players: Is there anything else coming?
The thing: That’s what the missing addon is all about
15 Euro Paradox and developer Romero Games once wanted to create the second major DLC for Empire of Sin, the flopped attempt to establish a tactics game against the backdrop of the US mafia era.
The Expansion Pass with guaranteed access to cosmetic content and the two expansions cost 25 dollars. Both can still be purchased today on Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However: Half is missing.
In the Steam forum, users have long since given up hope for the missing but paid content, There is talk of “fraud”.. Now we were able to address Paradox about the allegations.
Paradox in crisis
Falling share prices, botched releases, angry fans: strategy game publisher Paradox has had to struggle with serious problems in recent months. As part of our Plus report, we spoke to Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja and Chief Creative Officer Henrik Fåhraeus about the causes and solutions for the company’s situation:
The Future: A Vague Promise
Both of our conversation partners immediately seem contrite when we broach the subject of Empire of Sin. They openly admit that they should have “listened better to what the players want.”
When we mention that there is still an expansion for the mafia game that can still be paid for on Steam, Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja says somewhat unhappily that they want to make improvements here – despite the massive delay. The expansion is being worked on and will be released at an unknown date. However, the whole thing is also a matter of development resources.
1:02
The first expansion for Empire of Sin was still released
In fact, after all this time, a small team is supposed to be taking care of delivering the DLC for the effectively dead game (a maximum of 100 users were active at the same time on Steam), true to the motto “promised is promised” – or rather “sold is sold.” .
The background: refugee developers
But what about Romero Games, the original studio behind Empire of Sin? After the average ratings from players and the press (GameStar tester Manuel Fritsch awarded 69 points) and the completed work on the first DLC Make it Count, the developer has long since turned to a new project.
“New game mechanics, missions and powerful characters,” the Steam page for Expansion 2 of Empire of Sin has been promising since December 2020. Nothing has been delivered to date.
The company is led by Doom co-inventor John Romero (formerly id Software) and his wife Brenda Romero. The latter acted as chief developer at Empire of Sin. The final update to the game dates from November 2021. Since then there has been on the studio’s website a job advertisement looking for developers for a “new start” for the company.
Romero Games is now “100 percent focused on first-person shooters.” They are therefore working with a large publisher on a completely new brand. Unreal Engine 5 is used. What is missing on the homepage: any reference to Empire of Sin.
Table of Contents
