Paradox Interactive has inadvertently revealed its own new IP in a serious blunder that gave fans their first look at the developer’s next big project.
As spotted on Reddit, Paradox’s new game is titled Afterworld, described as a post-apocalyptic survival grand strategy game in a Discord channel description. The title was revealed on Paradox’s own forum by accident, with the word “Afterworld” appearing under the heading “Unreleased Games” in publicly visible filter settings.
The slip-up blows up any dramatic tension built by Paradox in the past few days, as the company had begun teasing a reveal of the game on X, with an official debut planned during the Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation on August 25. The developer published a video featuring scenes from their previously released titles showing apocalyptic scenes, such as a ruined castle from Crusader Kings 3 and a spaceship exploding from Stellaris.
Fans speculated wildly under the teaser post, hoping for a wide range of genre projects, like a fantasy 4X title or a new spin-off game of Stellaris, while some just begged for DLCs to Paradox’s existing games. Others struck gold, directly saying they hoped for a new grand strategy game–something which Afterworld appears to be.
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What We Know About Afterworld
While Afterworld has not officially been revealed, fans got their first hints about the game from the Discord description. That information seemed to imply that players would face post-apocalyptic threats such as warring wasteland factions, internal power struggles and research into technologies from days gone.
The official description reads: “Lead a tribe of survivors, rediscover ancient technology, manage wasteland settlements and wage wars of conquest and political struggle in Afterworld, an original post-apocalyptic survival grand strategy game.”
Afterworld is a brand-new IP from Paradox Interaction, which means it will diverge strongly away from the developer’s previous gameplay models. Fans on Reddit comically described it as “Civilization: Fallout Edition” after the description was leaked, which sounds about right.
The slip-up blows up any dramatic tension built by Paradox in the past few days, as the company had begun teasing a reveal of the game on X, with an official debut planned during the Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation.
The game will get its full debut during the Gamescom Opening Night Live stream, which famously kicks off the Cologne-based video game expo and usually reveals a lot of major titles from well-known publishers. Expected to debut is the first Afterworld trailer, which will give fans an idea of what to expect.
Afterworld likely got a big boost in development power after Paradox canceled its life simulation game Life by You, marketed as a Sims competitor, after multiple delays in its release schedule. Comments by Paradox CEO Mattias Lilja said the game was “lacking in some areas” and that the road towards its eventual release was “far too long and uncertain.”
Is Afterworld Going to Be Paradox’s Redemption?
The reveal of the all-new Afterworld IP will hopefully help to put previous Paradox issues to bed, as fans have vocally called out the company for poor business practices in recent years.
In 2024, new Stellaris DLC titled The Age Machine was widely praised by players for thoughtfully updating the game, before being seriously criticized for featuring generative AI content. A note on the game’s Steam page said AI systems were used in both “the ideation of content” and as the “creation of some assets.” Fans were quick to draw a line on Paradox’s usage of AI, leaving negative reviews decrying the practice and swearing off the company’s games in the future.
Paradox has also attracted ire from fans about its supposedly “lazy” DLC which makes minimal changes to the core gameplay experience yet happily robs players of their hard-earned cash. Crusader Kings 3 fans bashed Paradox for a number of DLCs released for the game, accusing the company of “nickel and diming people” with updates that “don’t change anything.”
We’ll be watching fan reaction to the official reveal with curiosity to see whether Paradox can win back player trust with its foray into post-apocalyptic strategy.
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