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Stellaris Going on Console

Paradox make Stellaris their first grand strategy that will be on console.

By Three of Seven Sun 26 Aug, 2018 6:19 PM
Paradox have been quite busy in these recent months, with news of new expansions, new games, and even board games! One of their other big announcements is their sci-fi space grand strategy game, Stellaris, coming to both Playstation 4 and Xbox One, with the creative name Stellaris: Console Edition, no bonus points for that one!

They will be working with Tantalus Media to being the game to console, whom they have worked with before to bring Cities: Skylines to console, the scores of which are around the average area, so a decent reception. You can see some of their developed games on their website or Wikipedia.

The biggest challenge they will face is bringing the mechanics used into a way that can be workable on a console. As it is a game with a lot of micro-management, and scrolling, there might need to be some trickery in getting this done, but there was a playable version at gamescom, which has seen some praise on how it controls.

It could be somewhat disappointing for Nintendo Switch owners that it hasn't made it's way to their console, the use of a touchscreen could certainly have been worked in for a game like Stellaris. Weather or not Paradox have any appetite for having any of their games published on the Switch is to be seen, perhaps in the future if their expanse into PS4 and Xbox One is successful, they will look at creating a broader catalogue.

When it comes to being released, their will be options available, with standard and deluxe editions, the deluxe will contain "the Plantoids Species Pack, Leviathans Story Pack and the Utopia Expansion when they are released". The game will continue to see DLC released, possibly at a delayed cycle to the PC version, unless they plan on catching it up at some point, and then running simultaneous releases.

You can read the Paradox announcement thread here, which has some mixed reaction from their memberbase, some of which seems to come from the choice of using version 1.7 as the start for the console game.

So what do you think? Do you own a PS4 or Xbox One, and plan to pick up Stellaris?

WRITTEN & EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com
7 Comments
Sun 26 Aug, 2018 8:36 PM
“The story so far:
Stellaris was ported to consoles.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Sat 01 Sep, 2018 2:42 PM
Why would it be a bad move?
Fri 01 Mar, 2019 12:10 AM
Because it will defer patches and DLCs to PCs.
Because it's an RTS (4X if you will) and it has no place on consoles.
We don't need changes from consoles ported to PCs, who knows what ideas they'll get.
Fri 01 Mar, 2019 12:22 AM
Because it will defer patches and DLCs to PCs.
Because it's an RTS (4X if you will) and it has no place on consoles.
We don't need changes from consoles ported to PCs, who knows what ideas they'll get.
That's simply not how game development works.

  • PC is the primary platform for this game, thus all DLC's and patches will always be on the PC first and then ported onto the console versions.
  • Whether something belongs on a console or not is down to an individual's own opinion, nothing more.
  • "Changes" from console to PC cannot happen for one simple reason: The developers work on PC's to establish a working base game before releasing it onto the console. If the developer tries to release an unfinished product to a console, the console owner will fail the product during QA and certification, thus preventing release.
Fri 01 Mar, 2019 12:40 AM
And then they'll pull an Activision and fire the extra devs because the profits are down and the rightful PC version will get to suffer even worse.
Paradox's games last for up to 10 years, they're not like the yearly FIFA or Call of Duty, a one and done release on all platforms.
Any change to their development can have negative effects lasting many years.
Consoles have their place and should stick to Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat and Burnout Paradise; 4X, FPS and RPGs are for us big boyz on our superior machines.
Fri 01 Mar, 2019 12:56 AM
Consoles have their place and should stick to Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat and Burnout Paradise; 4X, FPS and RPGs are for us big boyz on our superior machines.
YEH BOI PC MASTER RAAAAAAAAACE OI OI OI!!!!!!!

But seriously, it won't suffer, seperate dev team, Paradox are a pretty good company for things like this, and they are trying to expand their reach into other markets, it's why they have board games. The PC verision will remain ahead of the console versions, PC is where Paradox make their money, but they want to dip into other markets.

Will Paradox cut staff in other areas? Probably, but not as a result of this sort of move, some dev teams use temp workers, or contractors, who are only hired for a single project. Then you have your arts teams, which is Paradoxs case will probably be shared, since both games will use the same assets.

Really, they need to bring on more devs to update their outdated engine.
Sat 02 Mar, 2019 12:14 AM
Yeah, back in 2016 that's the only thing I hated about Stellaris, that they developed and launched it on the already antiquated engine.
They can work on it and add to it all they want, that still won't be up to par on our superior machines.
The easiest comparison would be to WoW's early 2000's engine. It's the same one now. They both run like ♥♥♥♥ on high end hardware.