Europa Universalis V (EU5) announced

[The_J]

As speculated last week, Paradox has this week announced Europa Universalis V.
This time the game will start in the year 1337, spanning 500 years.
The info is otherwise scarce, but you can have a look at this article at IGN and the associated screenshots.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Played very little of EU 4; played the heck out of EU3 'way back in the day (didn't have a PC for over 10 years, which severely limited my gaming experience!)

Biggest problem with the EU games for me was that it was impossible to develop any game in anything resembling a historical fashion. Start a game with 100s of tiny states and statelets all over the map, and within a century most of them were gone - swallowed up by a few big whales of major States. In most cases, the only question was which Major State was going to gobble up most of Europe: Spain, Framce, some weird eastern combination (Austro-Lithuania, Bohemia-Sweden, etc) or Ottoman Turks. Unlike the real world, nothing small could survive for long.

The reviewer mentions a 'new administration' mechanic that makes running a wide-spread Empire hard, and that's the part that interests me most. Purty graphics, multiple things going on at once, being able to play as the Dontgiveadamistan Caliphate - those are nice, but being able to play in a realistic environment for the time and place between the 14th and 19th centuries - that is exciting.

Assuming they are pushing for a 2025 release, this year is going to be full of interesting new games for the historically-minded gamer: Anno 117 set in Rome, Farthest Frontier in a Medievalish survival setting, EU V if you want to play Everything Medieval In The Whole Freaking World - and, of course, whatever bells and whistles they add to Civ VII later in the year . . .

 

[Dale]

As speculated last week

This is the worst kept "secret", considering they've been discussing the game publicly since Feb 2024.

Client Challenge

 

[queenpea]

Assuming they are pushing for a 2025 release, this year is going to be full of interesting new games for the historically-minded gamer: Anno 117 set in Rome, Farthest Frontier in a Medievalish survival setting, EU V if you want to play Everything Medieval In The Whole Freaking World - and, of course, whatever bells and whistles they add to Civ VII later in the year . . .

I'm very excited for this new chapter after arriving very late to EU4 but loving it.

From everything that I've read and absorbed, 2026 keeps coming up in conversations about the release timeline. That said, absolutely nothing has been confirmed by the studio.

 

[Quintillus]

Between EU5 and Project Caesar, Paradox will have all sorts of new games this year and next .

I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time feel like I still have mileage I can get out of EU4, despite it possibly having eclipsed Civ3 as my most-played game ever.

 

[Dale]

Between EU5 and Project Caesar, Paradox will have all sorts of new games this year and next .

I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time feel like I still have mileage I can get out of EU4, despite it possibly having eclipsed Civ3 as my most-played game ever.

EU5 == Project Caesar. They aren't two separate games.

 

[Pedro P]

There goes my next 15 years of disposable income I guess. EU is very addictive.

 

[Kyriakos]

It does look pretty cool. Of course in the usual Paradox style, it will take years (and cost many players hundreds of dollars) for it to be in a better state gameplay-wise.
Still, I like the engine improvements.

 

[Quintillus]

EU5 == Project Caesar. They aren't two separate games.

I know, hence the .

Although time-span wise, Project Caesar/EU5 is basically the last CKII start date + EU4. I'm still not sure how I feel about the 1337 start date. I suppose I got used to 1399 in EU3, it just seems... early?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I know, hence the .

Although time-span wise, Project Caesar/EU5 is basically the last CKII start date + EU4. I'm still not sure how I feel about the 1337 start date. I suppose I got used to 1399 in EU3, it just seems... early?

I believe it is designed to coincide with the first of the Bubonic Plague epidemics to hit Europe, so that you start the game with a major crisis and consequences that affect everything afterwards.

IF that is the case, it's a rather bold move by the game designers, but in line with a lot of the recent scholarship on the plagues and their effects. We shall see how gamers feel about starting the game by losing a large percentage of their population in every province!