Game Pass Day-One Release Sees “Weak” Commercial Reception

The Lamplighters League, a turn-based tactics game from Paradox Interactive, has been determined as a commercial failure only a week after release.

Paradox Interactive disclosed in a press release that it will write down the development costs of the Lamplighters League. The game’s total development cost of MSEK 320, approximately $29 million, will be marked as costs for the fourth quarter of 2023. The current impact of the game on profit, before, tax was estimated to be MSEK -248, approximately -$22 million. Paradox wrote down the costs based on a revised sales forecast from after the game’s launch. Essentially, the game has been a loss for the company so far, and Paradox does not expect to recoup in the near future.

In a statement within the press release, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester said, “The Lamplighters League is a fun game with many strengths. Even though we see cautiously positive player numbers in subscription services, the commercial reception has been too weak, which is frankly a big disappointment. Game projects are by their nature always risky, but at the end of the day we haven’t performed at the level we should. It is painful but makes us more eager to roll up our sleeves and do better.”

Besides Wester’s mention of “cautiously positive player numbers in subscription services,” Paradox otherwise did not disclose anything about The Lamplighters League’s simultaneous Game Pass launch and its potential effect on purchases and player numbers. Paradox is required to service the information it did because of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

The Lamplighters League is a tactics game set in a pulpy alternate 1930s. You take control of a band of misfits and scoundrels battling a cult called The Banished Court. You will infiltrate enemy outposts and mysterious ruins in real time, but when battle breaks out, it switches to turn-based combat.