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News video games 23 May 2023, 13:37

author: Jakub Tarchala

Victoria 3 Still Awaits Rescue; New Expansion Falls Short

Victoria 3 is currently one of Paradox's least popular games. The latest expansion, which could have changed the game's rather bad situation, only annoyed the players and, as a result, was flooded with negative reviews on Steam.

Paradox has reason to worry - Victoria 3 has been struggling with a decline in player numbers for quite some time, and the first major expansion, released yesterday, did not improve the game's situation. Against the background of Paradox's other titles, Victoria 3 is the "unloved child."

Voice of the People not so loud

Voice of the People was released yesterday and caused a big stir among the game's fans. This is not surprising - it is the first, highly anticipated expansion for Victoria 3.

The pack introduces new content - including 60 historical agitators, who can assist or hinder objectives, which introduces an additional tactical element. In addition, it offers new events, decisions and diary entries to better understand the turbulent history of France.

Unfortunately "it's not enough" - that's according to fans who have spent several hours with the expansion. The community is unanimous on this subject - just 35% of 194 reviews Voice of the People on Steam are positive.

The objections most often concern the limited content and inadequate price. Fans who purchased the so-called Expansion Pack, costing the same amount as the game, and got - as part of the pass - a meager amount of extra content, also expressed their dissatisfaction.

This hurts all the more because the latest expansion forCrusader Kings 3 - Tours & Tournaments - turned out to be surprisingly successful and rich in content, which was reflected in high ratings on Steam.

Victoria 3 - number of players not so impressive

Victoria 3 is an interesting example of a game that at launch boasted very high ratings (average score on Metacritic is 83%) and shortly after it achieved excellent sales (approx. half a million buyers in a month), but very quickly lost its high position - two months after its release, it went from about 70,000 players to 10,000 in daily peaks.

Victoria 3 Still Awaits Rescue; New Expansion Falls Short - picture #1
Source: SteamDB.

Before the release of the DLC, the game was played by an average of 5 thousand players at a time, which compared to older games of Paradox - such as Hearts of Iron IV (average 45,000.) or Europa Universalis IV (average 25,000.) - looked exceptionally poor.

The blame for this lies in the insufficient content of the base game, which is why fans were so eagerly awaiting the first expansion, which, as we already know, did not meet the high expectations.

Admittedly Voice of the People doubled the number of active players (to 10,000 in daily peaks), but it is still not on the level of Paradox's best games. In addition, poor reviews of the expansion will probably cause this result to quickly return to the old level.

Victoria 3 - essential information

Victoria 3 debuted on October 25, 2022 exclusively on PC. The title is an economic strategy game, whose action is set in the 19th and 20th in France. Currently on Steam there is a 20% discount on the game.

Jakub Tarchala

Jakub Tarchala

He started by producing content on YouTube in 2020, but eventually found out writing was his real jam. He set up a modest blog where he published video game reviews, and two years later combined his work with his hobby and started writing for Gamepressure. He loves Terry Pratchett's offbeat sense of humor and the philosophical mysteries of the universe embedded in Stanislaw Lem's novels. He enjoys watching comedies and horror movies. He has a profound affection for the Stalker universe (electronic, written, and pasted). In his spare time he plays guitar and collects Marvel cards.

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