Paradox Opens The Floodgates

“This, to me, is like an anniversary, birthday, birth of your firstborn kid all in the same day”

- Fraser Brown

For years, Paradox Interactive has hosted press conventions and small fan gatherings, but this year, in the publisher’s hometown of Stockholm, it combined the two with the first public Paradox Convention. Around 700 people gathered in Sweden’s capital for two days of panels, seminars, competitions and demos. But why has Paradox decided to open the floodgates now?

“I like the feeling of doing things like this,” says CEO Fredrik Wester, surrounded by PCs showing BattleTech skirmishes and Hearts of Iron IV campaigns. “This, to me, is like an anniversary, birthday, birth of your firstborn kid all in the same day. It’s a fantastic feeling.”

Wester and co have been planning this new version of PDXCon for over a year and a half, and discussing it for at least three years. They’ve just been waiting for the right moment. Almost everyone employed at Paradox is in attendance, along with several developers they work with, and even a few that they don’t.

“If you look at Frontier,” gestures Wester, “who is here as well, we’re great fans of what they’re doing, so we just sent out the invitation and they said yes. So we’re really happy to have them here. Same with Mojang. Minecraft – great game, great audience. And they’ve been doing MineCon for a couple of years, and we were inspired by that as well.”

While Mojang has fostered a gargantuan fanbase with Minecraft, Paradox hasn’t been a slouch in that department either. This is a chance for the publisher to hammer its appreciation of those fans home.