Tobold's Blog
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
 
DLC subscription

I have now played 40 hours of Europa Universalis 4, and I like it a lot. I played my first country (Aachen, turned later into Westphalia) for 200 years, into the Era of Absolutism, and then decided to stop that run. While theoretically you can play nearly 400 years, and do a world conquest with even a one province start, that feels somewhat silly and ultimately tedious. The more interesting part is following the mission tree, which either has some historical perspective, or proposes an interesting ahistorical alternative. The problem is, that not every country has an interesting mission tree.

I saw a streamer playing the Teutonic Order, and the mission tree looked interesting, so I decided to try that. Then of course there was a disappointment: That interesting mission tree wasn't included in the starter edition of Europa Universalis IV, I needed the Lions of the North DLC for that. On Steam that would cost €15. With EU4 having so many DLC, buying all of them over time can get rather expensive. Fortunately, there is a better alternative, a subscription: On Steam, you can subscribe to access to all EU4 DLC content, for which I paid €15 for three months. A €8 for one month option is also available.

I really like this option, especially for older games that have a lot of DLC. I might actually be interested in a DLC subscription for other Paradox games, like Crusader Kings 3 or Victoria 3. Realistically, I usually play these games for some weeks or months, and then leave them be for a few years before returning. A subscription business model suits me a lot better for that than a purchase model. Especially for EU4, where I probably will buy EU5 at some point, and thus a large investment into permanently owning a lot of DLCs would be kind of a waste.

From what I can see in the previews, EU5 is a bigger game, even bigger than EU4 with the DLCs. But I already heard one reviewer complaining that only 60 countries have large mission trees. I guess that DLCs with mission trees for a specific region (like Lions of the North for EU4) will be coming out for EU5 as well and keep the ongoing development financed. I'm okay with paying for DLCs (to own or subscribe) when they contain added content. I like it a lot less if it feels as if somebody deliberately cut content from the base game to sell it as DLC, or when the purchase of a DLC becomes necessary to access new game mechanics.

I can see how the option of DLC subscription won't be available for EU5 anytime soon. The game isn't even released yet, and nothing has been announced about DLCs. And a DLC subscription only makes sense when there are already several of them. I can see EU5 having something like a "season pass", with which you prepay for several DLCs in advance, but I find that business model a bit less attractive.

- posted by Tobold @ 9:41 AM Permanent Link
Comments:
That's actually an interesting option. In theory it lets you try out various pieces of DLC and then if you really like something you could pick up those pieces during a Steam sale. One of my problems with games with a lot of years of DLC is I'm never quite sure what pieces are worth picking up first so paying $8 to be able to try them all seems good to me.
# posted by Blogger Bigeye : 21/5/25 16:12
 
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