Paradox Interactive has confirmed that it will reveal a brand new grand strategy game, codenamed Project Caesar, next week, describing it as a “new era for grand strategy”, and there’s reason to believe it might be Europa Universalis V.
The first trailer for Project Caesar, which probably won’t be the game’s final name, is apparently set to debut on the official Europa Universalis YouTube channel (and not anywhere else, at time of writing) next week.
Right now, details about Project Caesar are fairly thin on the ground. The slogan for the game appears to be “Be Ambitious”, which could either refer to the game itself or to Paradox’s approach in creating it, I suppose.
If Project Caesar somehow isn’t Europa Universalis V, but a new Ancient Rome-set game entirely, it won’t be Paradox’s first effort in this area. Its last, Imperator: Rome, was released in 2019, although it hasn’t exactly proven popular with a lot of Paradox fans.
At the very least, the announcement trailer for Project Caesar (well, the announcement for the announcement, anyway) is accompanied by hashtags like #GrandStrategy and #StrategyGaming, so it’s a pretty safe bet as to what genre Project Caesar will fit into.
If it’s not Europa Universalis V, I’d at least imagine it’ll be a similar prospect to Paradox’s other grand strategy games; imagine Hearts of Iron IV, Victoria III, or Crusader Kings III with a decidedly more Roman bent and you’re probably most of the way there.
Still, we’ll have to wait until next Thursday, which is when the first trailer for Project Caesar will arrive, to find out. You can, if you like, check out the announcement-of-the-announcement here, although there’s not much to go on.
It’s been a strange couple of years for Paradox. The studio likely needs Project Caesar to be an uncontroversial hit; with the console versions of the much-maligned Cities: Skylines 2 still absent and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 not due until October, things are looking a little dire for Paradox.
In any case, we’ll discover what Project Caesar is on Thursday, May 8th, when the debut trailer will be released at 12pm Eastern on the official Europa Universalis YouTube channel.