Europa Universalis 4’s Russian expansion update has really bad timing

Not a grand strategy from Paradox

Paradox Interactive, developer and publisher of grand strategy game Europa Universalis 4, is currently working on an update for the title fleshing out the Russian expansion into Europe among other things – which is fine in and of itself, but the timing just ahead of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is terrible.

Russian troops attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, an illegal act that so far cost thousands of lives and featured the Russians verifiably committing a number of war crimes against the Ukrainian people. In this context, Russian media and politicians have revived old fantasies of taking over all of Eastern Europe, which according to their twisted worldview belongs to Russia anyways.

While basically every nation you can play in Europa Universalis 4 features both historical and completely ahistorical mission trees, which is completely fine and good fun usually, feeding into Russian nationalist’s fantasies at this time is just poor taste, especially as it’s widely reported that a new offensive to coincide with the first anniversary of the invasion is on the way.

In a statement made to Eurogamer, Paradox acknowledged that it was “not mindful of the timing of publishing this developer diary.”

"The imperial expansion of Russia into eastern Europe, Central Asia, Siberia and the Caucasus is a major event in the time period covered by Europa Universalis 4, so historical fidelity means we cannot ignore it”, the publisher stated. “In our efforts to depict the past with some semblance of accuracy and historicity, we are in no way intending to comment on current and ongoing wars or conflicts.”

Paradox Interactive is based in Sweden and specializes in making grand strategy games, most often in historical settings. Other popular series in the company’s roster include Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron.

Microsoft and Ukrainian company Antonov announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator would add the world's biggest plane, which was destroyed during the first days of the Russian invasion, into the game as DLC.