On apprend par le biais d’une annonce de Johan Anderson sur le forum de Paradox que Les Campagnes de Napoléon 2, qui devait être une coproduction entre Paradox et Ageod, devient maintenant March of the Eagles. Rappelons que Ageod a officialisé il y a peu sa séparation avec Paradox, le studio français retrouvant ainsi son indépendance (et préparant actuellement des améliorations pour Pride of Nations, ainsi que le prochain Alea Jacta Est).
March of the Eagles – A Europa Universalis Game utilisera la carte de Crusader Kings 2 et devrait, dans l’idée, se rapprocher du gameplay de Hearts of Iron 3, tout en empruntant quelques éléments de Sengoku (ex : les conditions de victoire) et bien sûr, vu le titre complet du jeu, en se calquant sur Europa Universalis.
Take command as any European country in the year 1805 and steer it through the turbulent period of the Napoleonic wars. As one of the great powers seek to gain dominance of the continent or as a minor country try to choose the winning side. Featuring a streamlined unit system, giving you a number of basic building blocks to construct your armies from, but giving you unprecedented flexibility in army construction as the balances of unit types give the armies new roles and abilities. A highly flexible victory system that sees Britain and France pitted against each other for dominance over the continent, but should one stumble another country can pick up the baton. Each country has different paths to Victory, taking the Eagles into Spain and Russia over France its best ways to win but your path is yours. As for the other countries your routes to Victory lie in several directions, do you ally with France or oppose her, both routes are open to you. The destiny of Europe is in your hands, what will you do?
– A detailed European Map stretching from Lisbon to the Urals, with operational manuevers on a map with cities and forts.
– A detailed historical leader database featuring the major commanders of the Napoleonic Period
– A powerful army building system that is easy to grasp but offers powerful choices to the player, with units organised in flanks, centres & reserves.
– Combat system with selectable preferred tactics for your armies.
– A detailed supply system, where supply lines and control of cities is vital for your victory.
– Diplomatic gameplay, with coalitions, satellites and expeditionary forces.
– A flexible Victory system that allows for Historical choices but gives the players freedom to pursue their destiny
– A freeform system that creates a dynamic game experience that gives the player multiple replayability, which country do you choose, which gambit do you pick?
– Every country playable, with eight major nations that can win on their own.
Par ailleurs, si vous attendiez Magna Mundi, cette déclinaison d’Europa Universalis 3 dont les développeurs avaient pourtant sorti il y a quelques semaines une ultime vidéo présentant le jeu, sachez que Paradox a décidé d’annuler le projet. Les principales raisons sont expliquées dans cette annonce, reprise ci-dessous. Cette annulation ouvre la voie semble-t-il à une bataille juridique entre l’équipe de Universo Virtual et l’éditeur Paradox. Comme l’indique la récente lettre ouverte à l’attention de Fredrik Wester que vous trouverez ci-après.
Annonce de l’annulation de Magna Mundi :
Paradox Interactive decided to cancel Magna Mundi. It will not see the light of day under the current set up: Universo Virtual (UV) will not be part of this project any more.
The reasons for cancelling the contract with Universo Virtual include the following:
– Lack of progress; we have seen this project drag on and the code we have gotten has not shown significant improvement for many months. Some old and known problems persists and new ones appear with each delivery.
– Lack of trust; the leadership of UV has given a sunshine version of the project to Paradox and reacted with irritation and anger when we have pointed out obvious problems with the deliveries. It has come to a point where they claim the project is done, and the game is ready for release – despite the many critical issues found and reported on our end.
– Internal strife within the MM team; we have gotten information from members within the MM team desperate to save the project whom report to us that the project lacks active leadership. Key personnel in the project see what Paradox sees but instead gets silenced by the UV leadership.
All in all, these are not circumstances under which we can work with a team and it will now stop. At this point we have no more news than the above.
Sincerely and regretfully,
Mattias Lilja
Executive Producer for Magna Mundi
Lettre ouverte d’Universo à Paradox :
Fredrik Wester,
I am publicly addressing you as I feel it’s my duty to the Magna Mundi fans to do the utmost to save the game and allow them to experience the work of the very special and talented team I have the pleasure to lead.
I also feel I have the duty to the team I lead to try to save Magna Mundi. The involvement of the team on the project and how all worked together towards the single objective of delivering the game was impressive. I was still deciding things minutes before I was warned by a Spanish team member that the game had been cancelled.
After reading that you were the one coming up with the idea of turning Magna Mundi into a commercial project, I feel we stand exactly at the same level of responsibility towards the fans: I created the brand and coordinated both the amateur and the professional projects and you decided to take advantage of it by producing a commercial game and in the process take ownership of the brand.In the first scenario everybody wins. This scenario demands leadership, charisma and ability to compromise. And those are exactly the qualities I am asking for you to show while trying to summon them myself. It’s a scenario where, to put it simply, a normal release date is set (I have no problem about a release in two or three months time to accommodate your release schedule), the game gets normally released and UV will continue to assume its responsibilities from then on. If for any reason you want UV to stop supporting Magna Mundi after the release thus allowing Paradox to take control of any future development within the scope of Magna Mundi, we can certainly talk about that.
At present the situation is clear. Your decision to cancel the game will lead to a legal battle where Universo Virtual will try its best to beat Paradox, while Paradox will be doing the same to Universo Virtual. All the while I will neither give you the Magna Mundi engine nor return to you a single euro that you spent financing the development of the game.
Courts apart, I am not one who fears the judgement of the public. I invite everyone who can come to Lisbon to check for them the game and make a judgement about it.In my book, cancelling a game at this stage and in these conditions while demanding back the money used for funding its development for two and a half years, demanding also the engine of the game, continuing to enjoy the ownership of the brand and retaining the possibility of releasing Magna Mundi for you, has a far uglier name than “cancellation”.
