The impossible-to-judge Imperator: Rome has had a shaky launch — why?

Paradox’s Imperator: Rome feels like an obligation, a necessary addition of an ancient world strategy game to add to its stable of medieval, renaissance, Victorian, and World War-era historical works. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad game — although it is a somewhat unfinished one. But it is a game that lacks the spark of the studio’s top titles — and this lack of soul has led to a bit of fan rebellion, which led game director Johan Andersson to respond to criticisms this past weekend.

But in a sense, Paradox games have been building to this point, where the question of whether we can even begin to describe them as “good” or not at launch feels slightly irrelevant. How did we get to this point?