Busted

Yesterday, Crusader Kings 3 released a new DLC for the popular historical strategy game. The reaction to it was very negative, with complaints about it being small and broken, as well as including features that some players felt should have been in the main game. Now, the game’s QA manager has issued a lengthy apology and explained what happened.

On September 9, Paradox Interactive released the “Coronations” DLC pack for Crusader Kings 3. This is just one of many, many DLCs and expansions that have been released for the large-scale strategy game since it launched back in 2020. However, shortly after Coronations launched on Steam, players began sharing negative reviews and complaining that one feature of the small DLC, oaths, was completely broken and causing problems during campaigns. Others complained that the small DLC should have been a free update and argued that Paradox has been squeezing player wallets more and more with these smaller DLCs. The Coronations DLC now has an overall negative rating on Steam.

In response to all this negative feedback and anger, Paradox’s QA manager has posted an apology, explained what happened, and promised that the studio would do better in the future to prevent this from happening again.

On Thursday, Crusader Kings 3‘s QA manager, Riad, shared a message with fans on the game’s official Steam page. According to Riad, he’s been wanting to apologize to the community for the last 24 hours and asked the “higher-ups” for permission to write an apology.

“I’m sorry. Coronations was not up to the standard you deserve, and that’s on me,” said Riad. “As the QA Manager for the studio, it is my job to ensure that our releases meet the [quality assurance] vision we have set out. It is clear we didn’t give the project the resources and attention it needed, and the result was a release that let you down. You have every right to be upset, and I want to acknowledge that openly.”

Riad explained that the studio has been “pouring enormous effort” into the next massive Crusader Kings 3 expansion, All Under Heaven. According to the QA boss, it’s the biggest expansion the studio has ever made and “basically every resource” is “committed” to making sure the expansion is “up to [fan] expectations.” However, this led to other projects at Paradox, like the Coronations DLC, having fewer resources and staff. And while Riad is “very proud” of what the team was able to pull off with limited resources, the QA boss called the whole situation “unfair” to both fans and the devs. Riad also blamed “last-minute” changes for oaths being broken in the new DLC and claimed the studio was going to be more “stringent” about these tweaks.

“Many of us on the team, myself included, joined Paradox as fans of the games. Meeting you at events…hearing your stories, and seeing how much Crusader Kings 3 means to you is what makes this work so meaningful,” said Riad. “That’s why it hurts so much when we fuck up like this. We don’t take your trust for granted, and I want to do my best to ensure we earn it back.”

Riad says that there is at least one more patch on the way to fix more issues in the Coronations DLC and added, “Thank you for holding us accountable and for continuing to care about this game as much as we do. We will do better.”

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