Wir wissen, dass diese Ankündigung überraschend kommt – es ist eine gute Überraschung, und wir könnten uns nicht mehr darüber freuen. Wir sind stolz darauf zu verkünden, dass wir eine Publishing-Partnerschaft mit Paradox Interactive eingegangen sind, einem führenden Publisher im Bereich Management- und Strategiespiele! Diese Zusammenarbeit passt perfekt und ist eine natürliche Ergänzung, da wir beide dieselben Werte teilen und uns einem spielerzentrierten Ansatz verschrieben haben. Wir fühlen uns geehrt, unsere Kräfte mit einem so angesehenen Publisher zu vereinen.
Von Anfang an standen die Interessen der Transport Fever Community im Mittelpunkt dieser Entscheidung. Transport Fever 3 wird genau wie geplant realisiert – nur verstärkt durch die zusätzliche Unterstützung und Expertise, die diese Partnerschaft bringt. Die Zusammenarbeit ermöglicht es uns, die bestehenden Pläne noch weiter zu verfeinern. Gemeinsam werden wir den eingeschlagenen Weg für Transport Fever 3 weiterverfolgen und den grösstmöglichen Mehrwert für Spieler und Modder bieten, sowohl Neueinsteiger als auch Veteranen.
Wir stehen weiterhin uneingeschränkt zu allen Versprechen, die wir der Community gegeben haben, und der Kurs von Transport Fever 3 bleibt unverändert. Wir und Paradox haben uns auf eine gemeinsame Vision für das Publishing verständigt, die unsere jeweiligen Stärken vereint. Die Rechte am geistigen Eigentum verbleiben weiterhin vollständig bei uns, und sie setzen volles Vertrauen in unsere kreative Ausrichtung. In dieser Partnerschaft geht es darum, Transport Fever 3 zu stärken – nicht zu verändern.
Transport Fever 3 ist damit auf einem noch stärkeren Weg, sein volles Potenzial zu erreichen, wenn es später in diesem Jahr erscheint. Vergesst nicht, es hier auf eure Wishlist zu setzen.
204 Antworten
I seriously hope this doesn’t turn TPF3 into a DLC-filled mess with a store front in the main menu. Especially recent Paradox games have had an issue with everything extra beyond the base game turning into a microtransaction.
I don’t really see how this strengthens Urban Games in any way, since you guys were on your way to become a great alternative to Paradox and Cities Skylines. But I guess the gaming consolidation has to continue for now.
This is not good news and makes me question your integrity and my will to support the new game, honestly.
Faire un partenariat avec un concurrent nous démontre que vous n’avez pas fois en votre travail. J’espère sincèrement que TF3 est une évolution de TF2 et que nous faire payer pour des skin, des nouveaux véhicules et autre DLC payant nous feras décrocher assez rapidement. Personnellement, j’aime mieux payer plus chère à l’achat du jeu que de payer pour des DLC.
Mais quand même, j’ai hâte à la sortie de TF3. Avec 1200h à TF2 sur console.
C’est pas un concurrent, c’est un éditeur. Ils en avait déjà un avant, Good Sheperd Entertainment, qu’ils ont quitté après Transport Fever 2. Ils le remplacent donc par Paradox Interactive.
Bon après, c’est clairement pas le meilleur choix, Paradox Interactive ayant une réputation catastrophique en particulier celle de détruire les jeux de gestion qu’ils touchent, mais bon, ça montre pas un manque de foi ou quoi, passer par un éditeur est commun et pas nouveau. Juste un mauvais choix sur l’éditeur.
Absolutely! The worst thing about Paradox is the insistence of DLCs, which Transport Fever 2 was a huge breath of fresh air. I really hope that they don’t go down this path, as this really is not a positive thing for the community.
Absolutely everything we’ve shown in the base game will be included at launch, and our development plans both in the run up to release, and beyond remain entirely unchanged. Working with a publisher gives us great support and resources to ensure that everything in our vision for the game will be as we want it which, ultimately, will give players a great game.
Pick a publisher with a better reputation if you must, but this announcement really was a shocker to the community.
I will never buy anything associated with paradox. This is very disappointing.
Urban Games I so want to join Beta TF3 but I lost can I join now pls?
Beta testing for Transport Fever 3 is ongoing. If you applied to join last year you are still in our list of potential testers and as such it is possible we’ll contact you when a new round of tests starts. Please be aware that we received many times more applications to join the beta than we can support, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll be asked to help test the game. Good luck!
I am coming into the franchise late, being a lover of all Tycoon type games… To be honest; I’m unsure how this franchise didn’t come up on my radar before now… I know it’s anecdotal; but if this is replicated by many others like me; who heavily play tycoon type games; then it’s an indicator that having a large publisher is needed. Larger publishers have bigger advertising budgets, larger resources and therefore access to a wider audience; to ensure that word gets out; therefore more money coming back to the developers and more money put into improving the game for the future. You can’t keep building bigger and better games without at some point needing more resources; it’s just not business economics or practical. Yes they’ve made a deal with a publisher that is notorious for numerous DLCs for each franchise they’ve taken on. But that doesn’t mean they will follow suit. I wouldn’t mind if after a year or so there are one or two DLCs as long as they deliver on their original promises; which from what I have read and seen; they fully intend to do! To me I would draw this analogy; would you get mad at a studio for releaseing a film you really love; but then 6 months later releasing a directors cut or extended addition for the fans?! No; you’d be happy as the film was still awesome. The same applies to games. I wish the developers all the best in this and will be buying this on release. I unfortunately found this franchise once the beta sign up had already passed; so can’t comment on the current gameplay; but remain excited to see what is in store 🙂 I just want to know is the release in the next month or so or is it towards the end of the year? I’m trying to work out if it’s worth me getting addicted to TF2 before the release! 🙂
So… They crushed the cities:skylines by publishing the 2 too soon, leaving other plateform than Microslop and now that they need this niche just outsourced you? Don’t become the next Colossal Order, for your own good.
At what level is this a good news? That is the deal? Publishing? Additional support?
Does that mean you have to integrate the Paradox launcher? Or the Paradox workshop instead of Steam? Do you have to abandon your MacOS/Linux communities for TpF4? Does that mean you will need to publish one DLC per month or retain feature to sell them?
To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi: “It was said that you would destroy Paradox, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!”
I will not says bad news yet, but this make me very cautious.
This changes none of the plans we already had. Mac and Linux will continue to be available on day 1, and there is no plan to use the Paradox launcher. We benefit from the additional support and expertise that comes with partnering with a well established publisher who specialises in these types of game. Meanwhile, with the game feature-complete, we are able to apply additional effort to ensure it is the best possible player experience for launch later this year.
well looking at city skylines 2 i really wounder what kind of expertise urban games is looking for given how well urban games games usually perform
Expertise to ruin franchises Paradox bought.
The time Paradox was a good publisher was a long time ago.
Thank you for the reply. I won’t like some other reply says this is a mistake, or a catastrophy, or attack you/yur company, I just fail to see what they could bring you at this stage. more Audience? More global Advertisement?
I don’t fear for the game, you seems to prepare something at least as good as the 2ⁿᵈ was and will purchase the game.
It is those kinds of functions in publishing where we will gain the most benefit. The game is shaping up very well, and very much according to our plans.
Guys, You are better than paradox! You dont need them! They need you!
“there is no plan to use the Paradox launcher”
But can you guarantee that it won’t be there? It’s gonna be an instant refund from me if the game comes with Paradox malware.
I don’t understand this step at all. You had a nice niche going on and fans loved you. Now it’s as if you’re selling your soul and betraying your fans.
no he can’t.. and it will happen, not at realease, but after a while.
Oh come on dude, if it doesn’t use the paradox launcher from the start why would they change it to use it after launch? I get the animosity towards paradox (I’m a HOI4 player trust me I know) but so many people are severely overreacting imo. It’s a publishing agreement, not Paradox buying out Urban games, not Paradox buying the IP, it seems like it’s just basically Paradox getting commissioned to help UG with the last steps of publishing the game. I really do understand the immediate bad memories people are experiencing hearing Paradox will be involved but this isn’t the end of the world. I’d really like Urban Games to clarify what this agreement entails instead of vague statements about the “route continuing as planned” but it doesn’t seem as bad as people are making it out to be.
I am really afraid that this translates to “We will patch out feature-complete content so Paradox can charge the community with a first season pass at release.”
Paradox DLC politics is one of the most horrible plagues in this industry, and you didn’t answer that question in the comments ONCE. Which tells me it’s part of the deal. I get that it makes sense on paper, and you probably want to reach a bigger player base. Let’s hope it won’t turn into a disaster.
That’s just not the case. Our design for what’s included in the game is completely unchanged, the full feature-set that we’ve shown already as well as more that we haven’t show will be included at launch, as part of the main release. Our plans for supporting the game post-launch are again unchanged, they’re exactly the same as they were before we partnered with a publisher.
“they remain the same as before” does not say you did not intend to change your strategy with respect to TPF and TPF2 which was “no DLCs” and long term support and made you successful. Please remember!
So, you’re saying you make new contents for the 15 DLC, priced 29.99 a year? Confirm me there are not regularly releasing paid DLC planned!
Sorry, I don’t see ANY positive things on this for the players.
Well established publisher that no one likes?
This is the most disappointing turn of events guess it was fun while it lasted but with Paradox the Parasites now involved its going to be a DLC money grab with features carved out of the main game. Having been burned by Paradox before there is no way I am paying for a game they publish. I guess I will watch from the wings as the carnage unfolds and hope its given away on epic games at somepoint for free because there is no way Paradox is getting my money
This really ruins my hope for TF3. I was hopeful for Cities Skylines 2 and paradox butchered it. For every other game they pump out one DLC after the other. Hearts of Iron 4 complete edition is over 500€. I really hope Urban games backs out from this.
I just checked what Jonas has claim about Heart of Iron 4 and I couldn’t believe… $587.40 for a game??? LOL Good luck with that… That’s no longer a game, that’s a Joke… That’s just wanting to help software piracy spreading out even more…
The fact as of 18/5/2026 or 12 days after this announcement, the replies have already slow down, is further proof that, those possible continuing and future customers you had, have already left the building..
I’m sure that the gullible customers will come to the party, but what percentage of the total community would that be? That’s a huge loss in my books… Is that the main reason perhaps, why the near totality of posts here are against Paradox… Too greedy? Too cheap? You guys work this out…
This has unfortunately just been removed from my Wishlist. I steer clear of anything related to Paradox, now. A huge shame as this was one of my most anticipated upcoming releases! Hopefully Urban will see the light sooner rather than later.
Gutted, what a mistake. As much as I do like Paradox games, as you know they are littered with dlc.
We entered into a publishing agreement with plans for supporting the game beyond release already in place, and those plans haven’t changed, nor do we expect them to change.
Looking forward for this game since it was announced. But now I am just scared and not sure if I even want to start playing it with the DLC lockdown and trash incoming. Hope I am wrong but this is just said. Feels like a bill sellout 🙁
This should have just been a background partnership that nobody needed to know about. Publicly stating that you have anything to do with Paradox, regardless of whether it is only a marketing partnership, is not good optics in the slightest. The very first paragraph praising Paradox, even if it’s true, comes off as tone-deaf to the community, who have not yet built up the trust Paradox has lost.
I understand that this is only a partnership. I understand Paradox can have many great things to offer, and I am still incredibly excited for this game. But even knowing all of this, this does not leave a good taste in my mouth. Sure, they might be turning things around recently, but they’re still a publicly traded company under the grip of their shareholders. They have only turned things around because they are realising destroying games is not profitable. They will turn around just as quickly as soon as they realise they can milk out more money.
Considering how Paradox operates last years and how they butchered great IPs, I dont read this as good news. Considering the almost finished state of TF3, I believe it wont have noticable negative impact on this game. But Im afraid what the future holds for the future titles. Unfortunatelly this news sound like a first step in the downfall of another great studio and game series. And I would not be surprised if the TF4 followed the steps of CS2, PA2, KSP2,… or in best case was actually finished, but riddled with microtransaction.
Our publishing agreement with Paradox covers only Transport Fever 3 for release and ongoing support. It is very important to us that creative control and the ownership of the Transport Fever IP remains with us so that we can make sure the vision for the game is realised properly – we would not have entered into this partnership if it were anything else.
This game just went from “pre order” to “I’ll just wait a year to see the state of the game and if there will be dlc”.
Hope you guys know what you’re doing.. but I have been burned too many times by paradox that I just don’t trust them anymore…
OH DEAR! That is horrible. I hope the game won’t go down the same road as cities skylines 2 did… but Paradox probably won’t be different this time too.
It’s worth noting that Paradox are acting as the publisher for the game. All development is still entirely being done by the team here at Urban Games. Paradox brings a lot of experience and expertise that will help make the path to releasing the game better.
I am not sure if you are acting ignorant or disingenuous here in the comments.
We’ve all seen what so-called “publisher deals” bring to a number of self-published indie/AA games. There’s never “just a publisher” or “just development support”. The franchise will get milked to the last drop and then left by the road.
You’re not making a good case with these vague replies to very valid concerns. How much financial control does Paradox have over UG now? Can they decide how modding is done, or the DLC structure?
You have to see that these are open questions that you’ve not answered yet.
Considering the mess of CS2 and many recently released Paradox titles, their “experience and expertise” feels more like a curse than anything right now. I can only hope Urban Games can buck that trend, but this announcement hasn’t particularly done my hope for the future of Transport Fever any good and, going off the other comments left in reply to this news, it doesn’t seem to be a particularly well supported move by the community either. I hope it goes well, and I still wish you all good luck, but it’s going to be a hard sell – especially if the game performs poorly on release. Aim high and please don’t make the same mistakes.
> “All development is **still** entirely being done by the team here at Urban Games”
That “still” is not reassuring at all…
> “that will help make the path to releasing the game better.”
This is not reassuring either : depending on the angle “better” could mean “more profitable with dlcs”…
Careful here, the fan base does not seem happy… if the fan base quit, the game will not be profitable. I have to admit that the idea of a shadow partnership would have been a better one… At least, it seems one company is very popular among its fan base while the other needs desperately to wash itself. telling nothing, releasing a great game, and only after that saying “thanks to Paradox for the help” could have been a much better move…
What a bad decision. I had great hopes for TF3, but now I am not so sure anymore.
I have the game on my whislist, and I was going to buy it on day one, but now I will probably wait some time before I decide if I will buy it or not.
I still regrett buying CS2, and I rather play CS1 instead.
Paradox brings a lot of experience and expertise on how to kill a fanbase
So what expertise are they actually bringing exactly? An unstable launcher, a broken mod store, and a track record of running franchises into the ground?
Also more then half the comments here are people removing the game from their wishlist.
Will the Paradox launcher ever be required, will Steam Workshop stay, what control does Paradox have over DLC and modding decisions long term?
“Trust us” doesn’t really work after CS2.
Didn’t you know the reputation Paradox has among gamers?
This is very disappointing. Paradox Games are well known for their negative impact on games. They turn most games into a DLC rich mess.
This is really disappointing and has completely ruined the excitement of Transport Fever 3.
Please do not make this a Paradox focused game. Cut the partnership.
Very disappointed that you’re partnering with a company that has butchered some of my most favourite games in this genre. I was a huge Cities Skylines fan, but the never ending DLC plus the failure of C:S 2 left me completely blindsided from that game. Transport Fever 2 was a huge breath of fresh air compared to that, with amazing mod support that didn’t break with every update, and no never ending DLCs. I loved how the game changed only in small meaningful ways after launching, and how you responded to the community. I really hope that this partnership doesn’t start making Transport Fever into another DLC pit, and Paradox’s imposed constraints don’t cause you to rush releases, updates, or DLCs. The fact you were an independent developer-publisher was really something unique in this genre and was actually a huge selling point for your community. I really hope you can reconsider this deal.
this .. this is not a joke right? this is very unfortunate, and very unwanted … please step back from this, paradox has a long history of over commercialising any game into unplayability. if this is now and stays the way it is, i can not keep TF3 on my wishlist, i will not give paradox any more money.
I am sincerely very worried reading this article.
The launch of multiple paradox interactive titles have been plagued with issues, rushed content and stomping microtransactions down throats.
Can we please get more information on how much control paradox have as a publisher in regards to future modding, DLC and finances?
I’ve seen a lot of valid but unanswered questions in the comment thread which do need to be answered when partnering with a publisher who has, time and time again, let down their community.
There is absolutely no change coming to how we release the game – we’ll be releasing it when we believe it’s ready, and you’ll likely have noticed that we’ve proved that we’re not in a rush. We’ll release the game when we believe it’s ready. It’s already feature-complete and into optimisation, balancing, and polish – it just wouldn’t make sense to make any changes at this point.
Modding, whether you are a mod-maker or just love using them also won’t change, except for the better. Our Curated Mod Program will help modders bring their ideas to life by offering additional support, and those mods won’t be sealed off behind any kind of payment. The same freedom of modding we’ve always had, entirely run by Urban Games, only (we believe) extend to be more accessible and flexible than ever.
When it comes to post-launch support of the game, we’ve had a plan in place for many months, preceding the beginning of any discussions about publishing, and that too is unchanged.
Being concerned or worried about the change in who supports the game in its development is understandable, but Urban Games have full creative control, and 100% ownership over the IP of the game.
See, what worries me are the things you DON’T say! Like “No, we don’t plan to release multiple paid DLC per year” … to me it looks you nearly compulsively avoid saying something like that in all youre replies, probably cos you know, it wouldn’t be true.
News… I am a fan of TF series. I am also all hands on deck with HOI4. With the prior i seei a clear scale for development – new version, new feature. With the later the scale resides somewhat in DLC. I personally like both the way they are. If however the expanded Bus Stop or curved stations becomes a DLC with a price, i am out. Else you can have 50, 60, 70 € per a copy of the complete package and the modding support. Once. Until the next game number.
In my opinion, publishing with the competition, removes competition, does not improve it. Whatever the hustle is, you‘ve done it 3 times, you could do it a 4th.
Either you are making a publicly listed Giant a favour or you want to sell out that precious IP for some shiny penny. I guess Time will tell
Good luck on your upcoming launch either way – new game is always exciting, despite the salty news
OMG, what a disappointment, I already know where it is heading to, paid DLCs, subscription plans, and hundreds costly extras to the game that bring nothing substantial but a headache and failed expectations. I want to be wrong, but I’m definitely not that naive…
Our plans to support the game beyond launch remain unchanged as a result of this publishing agreement. “Hundreds of costly extras” is very much not the direction we had planned at all.
Ugh sorry that reply didn’t help at all. Like many others I have serious concerns about this partnership. With time I deleted every Paradox game not just because of their greedy DLC policy. While I understand that you have to make money with the game and that you might have looked into new business ideas for the game anyway, I’m afraid this will turn out as a deal with the devil.
With this news I won’t buy the game at release but stay on the sideline and see how this story develops.
Time will tell. Sadly you have not refute the monthly subscription, so I,m guessing this one is gonna hit us sooner than later…
is that “had” or “have”?
With these other replies I had given you the benefit of the doubt that possibly there will be a stable Mod support and no costly DLC’s but this replay reaally screams “This ain’t ‘Hundreds of costly extras’ but rather many many micro-transactions” and so on.
I very much hope to be wrong tho, as I loved Train Fever and caught up with it a while ago again and was really happy to see a new upcoming self published game as it was with the other ones that build you the foundation of a stable fanbase.
Cheers
06.05.2026 Urban Games beerdigt Transport Fever 3
Warum Paradox ? Urban Games ? Ich war bis zum heutigen Tag fest entschlossen Transport Fever 3 zu kaufen ab Release .
Mit dem heutigen Tag muss ich sagen Ich warte erstmal ein paar Monate ab nach Release !! Ich würde jedem das Raten auch zu tun !!!
Lasst uns Urban Games ein Denkzettel verpassen ???
Ich habe Cities Skylines geliebt …. bis der Katastrophale 2. Teil Release wurde
Passt auch Transport Fever 3 wird genauso wie Cities Skylines 2 ….
Paradox ist eine heuschrecke … Die wollen die Transport Fever Reihe bei sich im Haus haben uns spätter wenn die alles kaputt gemacht die Reihe auf kaufen ….
English :
May 6, 2026 Urban Games Buries Transport Fever 3
Why Paradox? Urban Games? Until today, I was absolutely determined to buy Transport Fever 3 on release day.
As of today, I have to say I’ll wait a few months after release! I would advise everyone to do the same!
Let’s teach Urban Games a lesson!
I loved Cities: Skylines… until the disastrous second installment was released.
It’s fitting that Transport Fever 3 will be just like Cities: Skylines 2…
Paradox is a predatory company… They want to own the Transport Fever series and then buy it later when they’ve ruined everything…
Ja, ich distanziere mich auch fürs erste und beobachte ganz genau, was noch passieren wird. Wieder der Beweis, dass man keine Spiele zu einem Release kaufen darf, es sei denn, man weiß genau und hat die Garantie, was auf einen zu kommt und was man bekommt – und das ist selten.
Ich hatte es mit Farming Simulator 25 gemacht (bis heute boykottiert) und auch bei TPF3 werde ich das Spiel ablehnen, bis wirklich garantiert ist, dass wir als Spieler nicht dadurch auch nur ansatzweise beeinflusst werden. Bis dahin sollten auch die Preise nochmal fallen und evtl. Fehler behoben werden.
Bis auf ein paar Punkte kann man also nur profitieren
Honestly – problably one of the worst decisions you could have done. Nothing good has come out of Paradox for a while. All of similar partnerships might have worked for a short period of time but usually they have been franchise killers sadly.
Shocking news. Paradox have run other IP into the ground, most notably Cities Skylines. You say you have the IP still, but I’m not convinced. Let’s see how you spin this over the next few months before a badly-rushed release.
Well, goodbye Urban Games. It’s been a wild ride and I loved the TF Franchise you created.
I guess the future holds a DLC train, disregard for customers, you being pushed to do things you didn’t initially plan for (DLC, launcher, shabby releases, no long term support unless it involves DLC etc etc)
Such a shame that a great company has done a deal with the dlc devil.
Tja, das war es dann wohl für mich, wie in den anderen Kommentaren beschrieben, halte auch ich das für eine Verschlimmbesserung.
Good Bye Urban Games
Ihr sagt die community liegt euch am Herzen ??
Paradox hat so ein schlechten Ruf bei uns in der community. Das ihr uns mit Füßen tritt .
Hat Urban Games kein Geld mehr ?
Seit bitte ehrlich !!
ich glaube eher daran das Paradox den geld gegeben hat das die am spiel mitwirken können was nicht gut ist.
Das Spiel ist weg von meiner wunschliste
.. and game directly deleted from my wishlist! bye bye
same here
Same!
This was one of my most anticipated games this year. I love Urban Games but this was a bad decision. Paradox is a train wreck.
Infinite DLCs full of stuff that should have been in the base game, and the Paradox launcher and their mod store are the same wreck.
Paradox is definitely not pro-consumer, and from the last few years it should have been obvious that this is a bad deal.
I own all of the games from Urban, but this is the first one I’ll skip if it involves Paradox slop.
The slippery slope begins… TF3 might survive, but TF4 will be a CS2 repeat.
I sincerely hope this decision is reversed or significantly looked at. Paradox is one of the worst, most anti-consumer, and greedy publishers in the current games industry. They destroyed the Cities: Skylines brand, and still have not delivered on a finished product for Cities: Skylines II after nearly two and a half years. Paradox mods is a horribly buggy, slow and unstable platform for modding, and the removal of the Steam workshop was nonsensical. Paradox has released incomplete game after incomplete game, what they have to share cannot be valuable, looking purely off how bad Victoria 3 and especially Cities: Skylines II have launched. Will Steam workshop support still be included with Transport Fever 3? Can we expect a similar update cycle and DLC model to Transport Fever 2, which only had 2 well-priced DLCs? How can we trust that Paradox will have absolutely 0 influence in the handling of this game, or future products?
Personally, I find this partnership quite promising! Many players are displaying a negative attitude that I find excessive towards Paradox Interactive, which, despite all the bugs, has made an extraordinary leap forward for urban simulation with unprecedented features until the arrival of CS2. They also forget that they created a transportation simulation similar to, if not more advanced than, Transport Fever: Cities in Motion. For the urban transport aspect, it includes features such as managing bus/metro/tram traffic based on off-peak/peak hours (whether we like it or not, this is a CENTRAL aspect of realistic network management), and a ticket pricing system based on zones from the city center to the periphery and then the suburbs, as well as customer profiles (students, workers, retirees, tourists, etc.). If these features are included in Transport Fever 3, they will perfectly meet my expectations. There was also a staff management aspect that would be interesting to integrate into TF3.
While we’re at it, regarding urban transport, Urban Games needs to integrate ALL MODES, from buses and commuter trains to subways and monorails… In this regard, the first version of Cities: Skylines, thanks to DLC, included multi-level underground subway lines, along with shopping malls in underground subway stations in CS2. It would be just as interesting and realistic to integrate this feature into the urban transport systems of TF3 cities… Thanks to DLC, the base game of Cities: Skylines has been significantly enriched at a reasonable price… Those who want static versions with new editions of the game are foolish, because they will inevitably be more expensive…
You must be joking – or have been living under a rock..
Wow, of all the partners in the world… Paradox!!! They managed to f*uck Cities Skylines 2 up, a NOT do anything about it for years. Now Iceflake Studios have done more for the game, in 3 months, than Paradox ever did. Paradox will seriously mess this game up, as they do anything they touch. The entire CS2 eco system is effed up, with extremely bad mod integration. Proof is that CS1 still have more actual mods than CS2.
My goodness Urban Games, what are you thinking? Have you run out of money? Paradox is BAD news. This is an instant DELETE FROM WISHLIST.
Now I’m not so excited as I was yesterday, last month or last year. I don’t feel, and as I see even many others, that Paradox is a good choice. They’re exactly why we were excited for Transport Fever 3.
We all know how brilliantly Paradox ruins good IPs by countless number of overpriced DLCs and rushed development. I just hope you know what you’re doing and you will stay as the one who will have main influence on development for full cycle of the game and will not be grounded for further development by their quotas.
Paradox has made a lot of awful decisions for publishing games in the past years. Cities: Skylines 2 was a publishing disaster, decision to release it as a full game instead of Early Access was an awful idea. Marketing campaigns were misleading customers into purchases, the failed and still not existing console launch and several other issues.
I really do not like how the
-“We know this announcement comes as a surprise – it’s a positive one, and we couldn’t be more excited about it. We are proud to share that we’ve entered a publishing partnership with Paradox Interactive, a leading publisher of management and strategy games! This collaboration is a perfect match and a natural fit, as we both share the same values and commit to a player-first approach, and we’re honored to join forces with such a respected publisher.”-
reads exactly like a Paradox Cities: Skylines 2 Dev Diary or Dev post. Especially this part “it’s a positive one,” is making me angry; the customer decides what they think about a change and not the publisher or dev team. That is also something PDX has been doing for a while now, selling us a fake emotion and not a product.
Their decisions have killed the trust in their entire customer base across all games; they ignored problems, concerns, accused the community of being overreaching and then cutting all contact. Paradox is NOT a trusted publisher. Paradox hyped games like “Life by You” up until cancelling it suddenly. They are not interested in the actual conversation and opinion exchange with users and customers and are not a “user first” company.
This is a huge disappointment to anyone that I know from the Cities: Skylines community that had hoped for Tpf3 to provide a new and better game.
Just because you (Urban Games) are promising that this changes nothing in your plans at this moment, doesn’t mean that Paradox isn’t allowed/able to influence things majorly down the line and that is very concerning and upsetting.
Gloating a company that has ruined it’s reputation for years now is a really bad way to start the announcement.
I sincerely hope that Urban Games is aware of risks and is going to be pushing back, if PDX decides to be an issue.
Save the time to reply, I have read the other replies from you (Urban Games) and they are all hollow to me, which is a disappointment.
Honestly didn’t even notice the “it’s a positive one” part until you pointed it out. Loved your comment, hate the announcement even more now.
Yh that has become a general issue in software and game releases/marketing etc. Even inside games it has become a huge nuisance (Forza Horizon titles are really annoying on this part). The player is told what to feel and that most often doesn’t align with the actual reaction of the player/user/customer and it feels very forced and uncanny/offputting. They (Urban Games) can surely be excited that they were able to make that partnership happen, but calling it’s quality/value is just not something they can estimate or judge yet.
Glad my comment highlighted an issue and you enjoyed it, Sebastian.
Honestly, I wish Urban Games backs out of this partnership.
I probably won’t buy TF3 via Paradox. I bought CS2 immediately after its release, more than 2 years ago, thinking I bought a good game, but no. Was playing 15 minutes too long on the Steam version to get a refund Because of that, Paradox still owe me €80. I don’t want to spend another Euro to this company, because with their clever marketing they tricked me into buying CS2, which was so incredibly bad (and still is) that it was not even worth to be designated as an Alpha version! And you deal with this imposters??
What on earth does Urban Games expect to gain from a “partnership” with Paradox Interactive? so far, that publisher has done almost nothing good in the past few years, and is known for spamming DLC’s with features that should be base game, pushing developers to rush out unfinished games as finished and using scummy marketing techniques to make people pay double the price of the game for almost no extra content (like with the ultimate pre-release version of CS2 or whatever they called it.) “the route of TP4 continues as planned” – well what concrete reasons are there for partnering with Paradox? All the answers have been incredibly vague, a real open response with what the reason is for the partnership and what specifically would improve for the customer when Urban Games collaborates with the now infamous publisher Paradox would be very appreciated by the community.
TF3 Removed from my Steam Wishlist.
I’ve looked over and I think there’s a few questions that need answered, as there’s lots of negative opinions at the moment.
1. Are Paradox in control of DLC, prices etc?
2. Will Transport Fever 3 have lots of paid DLC?
3. Will Paradox have any control over modding?
4. If this partnership goes south, does Urban Games have the ability to back out?
Thanks,
Bruce
Please remove the partnership with Paradox. Its not positive for the creators and the community. Paradox already had a bad history with cities skylines 2.
Who’s behind Transport Fever 3?
For the first time in the company’s history, Switzerland-based Urban Games is not only developing, but also *self-publishing* Transport Fever 3. This allows the studio to maintain full independence and focus entirely on delivering a product of the highest quality.
–
Just wanna say, stay close to your roots. Still getting on the TF3 train, lets go!
Oh, I forgot that. So they failed the self-publishing part. Sad. What is worse, is that they chose the worst editor out there…
Okay I’m sure some people here will know me and be expecting my unfiltered side from where I sit.
Firstly reading through everything it would appear on the surface from comments from Sam, Urban’s Community Manager, that Urban still hold 100% of the games IP and after three successful titles I doubt they’d put that on the line for anything. Also Sam has gone on to reply to people stating they have NO plans to add a PDX Launcher and there are NO plans to add tons of DLC’s. Now I for one don’t mind two or three DLC’s but we all know how PDX likes to push £100’s worth of DLC’s for each titles they publish, hopefully PDX will not be in a contractual position to force Urban Games into such a route, we’ll have to wait and see though.
I don’t see this happening here though as from all the trailers released the game is quite far into development and although we don’t know how long they’ve been in talks with PDX, the fact they are sharing this information now, probably means it’s unlikely to see a PDX Launcher or DLC’s on day one. From experience with previous titles from Urban I would hope they’ll be bringing a well rounded title on day 1 and the support to the game and community in the following years like they’ve always done. We ALL need to remember the three titles that they haven’t failed us with so far and instead of jumping on the PDX is a nightmare scenario, let’s hold out FAITH in the team at Urban who to date hasn’t failed us!
Reading in-between the lines my guess would be that they are doing this in order to expand their customer base across to consoles which I suspect they don’t have the skills or agreements in house, including licensing in place with either Microsoft or Sony. Knowing PDX have other titles that have been ported to console within similar genre’s means this would make perfect sense for Urban to seek out such a partner. I’m sure we could all name two or three alternative’s that we would have preferred and we probably won’t know if other alternatives weren’t looked into before making the choice to go with PDX.
I would have liked to have thought that any company choosing to partner with PDX would have realized the backlash from the community they’d receive because of the past several years of troubled titles and studio’s fiasco’s and hopefully this was taken into consideration with whatever deal they’ve made with PDX, but it is their company and their decision, we’ll never know the contents of the deal unless both parties agree to share that information with the community, but in my experience with agreements between several companies over the years would conclude they won’t divulge this information to us.
I for one am still excited for TpF3 because of what I have seen in the trailers, if 100’s of DLC’s do come out, I have the choice to not buy them, but I think the game from launch from what has been shown will be rounded off enough to make this fourth title a success. I really hope that sales won’t be affected to much with all the hatred towards PDX.
I for one wish all at Urban Games the best and success with their upcoming title, although I find it hard to stretch this sentiment to PDX having had my fingers burnt myself by them.
All the best Urban/Community
Slim
Agree with you there Slim
Everyone is excited about TF3, Slim! That’s exactly why the backlash is so huge! If we didn’t love their games, there wouldn’t be any backlash!
They are better than paradox! They dont need paradox! Paradox need them! This is such a bad deal imo!
The concerns that have been raised are entirely understandable as it introduces some elements of doubt, and uncertainty can lead to an expectation of what players perceive to be a worst-case scenario. As much as we can try to steady the views of those who are maybe more concerned than others, ultimately the game itself will hopefully prove that we haven’t changed direction in the way the game is made and what it includes.
We know that our plans are unchanged, and that full creative control resides with Urban Games, and we now have to prove it.
Thanks for the support, and for trying to see both sides of the picture.
I actually disagree on one point, in this comment area the term “DLC” is written more than 80 times. And not a single time in a post of Sam / Urban games, so no, he did NOT say that there are no plans for a ton of DLC. He said the plans don’t have changed but that means nothing, so you can’t say that means no mass DLC when it also could mean, they had that plan anyway. Unfortunately, it just seems to me like they’re desperately trying to avoid addressing this issue directly here, even though it’s a burning question for many people here.
And I’m honest, I’d also don’t mind two or three big, significant DLC over the life time. But if it becomes a typical DLC contaminated title like we know Paradox titles, I’m out. I’m done with playing games where it always feels like I’m missing out on the complete experience, cos I didn’t directly spent 30 bugs on the new DLC or where I come back to the game after a year or two not playing only to learn, there are 12 new DLC, please give us 180 bugs to have the full game. And it’s also not done with saying, even when, you don’t need the DLC, the game is stillt he game you bought, cos the psychological effects of DLC have been well investigated. It’s FOMO as in “If I don’t buy this DLC now, I’ll miss out on the full experience”. And cos I’ve no confirmation that that is not the case here, I’m out for now.
Yo – Listen to what your fan base wants, and it is NOT Paradox! Reconsider while you still have time.
Why Paradox… I absolutely hate this decision; Paradox is a bit like EA. I know the developers and the team aren’t the ones who made this decision—it was some “BWL Justus” who did it for a little extra cash. Unfortunately, I won’t be buying this game for now—or at least I’ll think it over carefully. I’ve already removed it from my Steam wishlist. Well, Tropico 7 is coming out this year too, so I’ll just buy that instead.
Paradox is your choice, good luck to you, but I will never spend a penny on this publisher.
Agree with you there Slim
You are confusing Paradox and Colossal Order. The latter was developing the game. Paradox is the publisher and IP holder. They directed the shift from Colossal Order to Iceflake Studios. Yes CO/Paradox butched the launch, but the community is quite pleased with the efforts to rescue the product atm.
You guys really should have either kept this as a background agreement or you should be much more clear on what this will mean. I’m sure you’ve realized just how unpopular Paradox is by now and I think you really need to rethink how you’re messaging on this. People really do have a bad taste in their mouth from Paradox (even myself to a degree as a HOI4 player) and announcing so publicly and with so much praise that you are now working with Paradox was not the right move. What isn’t at all helping is the vague phrasing in the initial announcement and the vague non-responses you keep giving in the comments. I don’t see this as a dealbreaker personally, and I still have high hopes for the game, but I see how many people are now entirely skeptical of everything from this point on. If you could at least clarify what services exactly Paradox will be providing and what they will be getting out of this I think it would go a long way to regain trust.
Awful news, I’m really sorry you guys had to go this direction for funding.
Paradox screwed Cities Skylines 2 up so bad that the crown for the city building genre was yours for the taking. Then you decide to partner with Paradox. Seriously, whiskey tango foxtrot?? TF3 has been removed from my wishlist, count me out.
I’m going to be blunt – this is disappointing. I don’t this I will be wasting my money on another Paradox Game. Sorry not sorry.
Come on people, did you not the read the official announcement?
It clearly states that UG is retaining full IP property rights and Paradox is being hired as a publisher. Whether you like it or not, that’s what the core of Paradox’s expertise is. The other stuff (destroying game studios and cancelling titles is their side-gig). If you have a problem with Paradox, take it out with them. I’m yet to see the hordes with torches and pitchforks at their gates over the CS:2 fiasco, despite all the smoke.
Also, IIRC CO also had full IP rights to CS:1 until they sold them to Paradox for CS:2, but UG is NOT selling their IP property – TF remains UG’s baby. But if the deal potentially brings TF3 to the consoles, would anyone object to that? Why would you say NO to more players and more customers – we all want UG to succeed, don’t we?
On the other hand if you see the Paradox Mods instead of the Steam Workshop inside TF3, then I’ll eat my hat. In which case send your message with your wallet, but right now there’s no reason to be dramatic, or not buy TF3 when it comes out.
Finally, UG coming out publicly and annoucing this partnership was a 100% right thing to do. The Streisand effect of this deal being done in secret would’ve surely tanked the game.
Agree. As i mentioned above tome will tell what the fuss is about. We hope for the best and not for HOI4naizing that genre☺️
This is on par with the following : Like
1991
Ratners Jewellers collapsed after CEO Gerald Ratner publicly denigrated the company’s products in a 1991 speech, causing a catastrophic loss of consumer and investor confidence.
Dont you do in depth research. if you did you would know regardless of the business reasons customer confidence is every thing. Talk about dropping the ball
I really hope this is an April Fool’s joke that has been delayed for a month. Cooperation with Paradox will not lead to anything good. Given the quality of the games, you can no longer expect good games from this publisher. I completely agree with the people in the comments, most of them clearly understand what this cooperation will lead to. At the expense of Urban Games, Paradox is trying to improve its reputation and the audience’s trust in “its” games. Paradox themselves realize that they are a “sinking ship” from which they are trying to draw water instead of sealing the hole. In the long run, cooperation with Paradox will lead to the decline of the TF series.
Oh, it’s Paradox, who sell me CS2… OK, I delete you tf3 game from wishlist. Not because your game bad, but because I believe in reputation. I don’t buy anything from paradox. Sad. I hyped tf3 so much. So bad news… but, thanks for your honest, now I know.
Hello UG,
you should release an official statement to the community as soon as possible. The recent news has caused a lot of criticism and uncertainty among players regarding the future of the series.
Many players are already reconsidering their purchase or have decided not to buy the game because of this situation. The involvement of Paradox has made the situation even more concerning for many people in the community.
Personally, I will also have to reconsider my purchase of the next title, as I do not trust Paradox and do not want to financially support the company. Because of this, I have already removed the game from my wishlist.
It honestly feels disappointing, especially because it is clear how much time, effort, and passion your team has invested into Part 3. That makes the current situation even more unfortunate, as many players feel this decision does not benefit the series at all.
A transparent and clear statement could help answer open questions and rebuild trust within the community.
Can we get another post here and on Steam etc, were Urban Games promise to protect the game and themselfs from the greedy, bug-infested grabbyhands from Paradox?
When I read “Paradox is the publisher of..”, I get flashbacks.
Their “Sims like game”? Dead before release.
Millenia? Dead.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2? Horrible game.
Cities Skylines 2? Horrible release + “Creator pack money grab BS” Doubt I will touch that game again.
And their own games? ~50€ per year for DLCs etc, that most times break the game completly and they have to fix it. Or they just dont fix it.
I kicked the game from my wishlist. 2 of my family members too. 10 years ago, I would be like “Oh, Paradox. Neat!”, but yeah, that was 10 years ago.
God, this is the worst thing you guys could’ve done for the game. Paradox? Why?! First of all this is so random. You guys were doing so good, you could’ve self published like you guys said you would, or found a better publisher than going as low as Paradox. Hooded Horse exists?!!? Secondly I refuse to believe any deal with Paradox, especially after the last few years is a good one. They’re business practices of making a quick buck by pushing games out before they’re done, with bugs galore, and selling DLCs by the dozens for exuberant prices is atrocious. Even if it isnt immediate, they’re influence is going to run this game into the ground, no matter how minimal it is. It wrecks me that you guys would do this to a franchise as good as this. I refuse to give any money to Paradox, i can only hope you guys can possibly reverse this decision.
Thanks so much for the info. That makes my decision to buy a lot easier, and my wish list is a bit shorter now. I might check back in about a year after the full release to see if the game has become playable.
Absolutes Eigentor von euch! Selbst wenn Paradox keinen bis wenig Einfluss auf die Entwicklung hat, habt ihr damit genug Leute verkrault das Spiel nicht zu kaufen, da sie Paradox nicht finanziell unterstützen möchten.
Ich verstehe auch nicht den Sinn darin euren langjährigen Publisher Good Sheppard aufzugeben, nur um sich mit dem schlimmsten Publisher in der Videospielbranche zusammen zu tun. Es hätte jeder andere Publisher sein können und ihr entscheidet euch für Paradox?
Mein Hype für TPF3 ist damit komplett verflogen und das sage ich als Fan erster Stunde mit 3000+ h Spielzeit in allen TF-Teilen. Was ne Schande!
And that’s it for my planned day-one-purchase. Not with Paradox. They are as bad as EA and Paradox’ recent history shows, that the only thing they care about is their shareholder value.
I really hope you know what you got yourself into and I also hope this won’t end in an self fulfilling prophecy: When the long term player base decides not to get this game, your calculations won’t work out and then Paradox really steps in and says “You need us now, so do what WE want!”
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
oje… da läuft in meinem kopf jetzt ein schlechter film ab… kostenpflichtige DLCs? “annual passes” und ähnliches?
das tolle an TF war/ist doch das konzept: ich kaufs einfach, ich lade mir tolle mods runter von entwicklern die daran ihren spass haben – und dann lass ich es laufen!
bei urban games hatte ich bisher immer das gefühl, dass da menschen mit leidenschaft und freude dahinter sind. ich hoffe, dass ich davon nach dem release weiterhin überzeugt bin, und es nicht (nur!) um die kohle geht.
Es mag naiv erscheinen, aber könnte es nicht sein, dass diese Partnerschaft dazu gedacht ist, Paradox Interactive besser dastehen zu lassen?
Immerhin waren die letzten Veröffentlichungen dieses Unternehmens nicht von gutem Ruf gesegnet. Es gab unfertige Spiele, ausufernde Preiskalkulationen und somit äußerst unzufriedene Kunden bzw. Gamer. Mit dieser Partnerschaft also könnte doch bezweckt werden, aufgrund des (in bisherigen Titeln) überragenden Erfolgs von Urban Games auch den Ruf des Publishers zu stärken.
Vereinfacht also in etwa: TF3 gut, Paradox auch gut.
Selbstverständlich ist das nur eine (leider unwahrscheinliche) Möglichkeit, aber sie sollte bedacht werden. Die Hoffnung stirbt schließlich zuletzt.
Und in dieser Konstellation hätte Paradox schon viel Geld an Urban Games zahlen müssen, damit die sich diese Schand antun … wer weiß.
Sehr sehr schade das ihr diesenn Schritt gegangen seit! Ich glaube das eure Spiele so sind wie sie sind lag mit daran das ihr selbst entschieden habt was wie wann usw…..
Im Moment glaube ich das das ein großer Fehler von euch war und werde zukünftige Releses sehr kritisch beäugen, da ich denke das es der Qualität eurer Spiele schaden wird.
Ich hoffe ihr bleibt wie ihr seid glaube es aber nicht.
Sehr sehr schade, falsche Entscheidung
Etwas Gutes hat die Nachricht. Ich weiss jetzt nähmlich Bescheid über den Release von TF3 und freue mich darüber.
Allerdings werde ich das Spiel nun frühestens ein Jahr nach Release kaufen, um zu schauen ob Paradox es an die Wand fährt oder nicht.
Ich finde es sehr Schade, dass so viele Fans durch diesen Fehlentscheid ‘verkauft’ wurden. Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass es keine besseren Möglichkeiten gegeben hätte.
Well, it depends, if paradox only invest a bit of money and do some marketing in exchange of some royalties, ok even happy for hearing it.
If it’s to become a dlc hell like other paradox projects…
Disappointing! Paradox only showed to communities disappointing policies by filling games with DLC , i have no doubt about TF3 , it was devolopped by Urban in its entirety (until this point) because for now Urban still have the control and this annoucement raise multiple question that only have been vaguely been responded too . I’m not afraid of the present but for the future because nothing have been montioned about the powers that Paradox has over Urban the lack of transparency only put oil on the fire . this partenership could be great if paradox is stricly maintained as distibutor/ publisher , PLEASE keep publishing your games on other platofrms because at some point that urban whant urban could loose its ability to be independent toward paradox ! i’m begging to urban NOt to 100% rely on paradox!
Well this is the death of TF3 and probably Urban Games. 1900+ negative comments on steam with zero likes says it all. You have just destroyed the community that has loved your games and were happy to support you until this news. 90% of your wish list support has just been wiped out in an instant.
This statement annoys me more than anything “From the very beginning, interests of the Transport Fever community have been at the heart of this decision.” If this were true you would never of sold out to Paradox who have a vile reputation for the tactics in destroying IP’s and developers.
A statement that you wrote in your FAQ :
“Who’s behind Transport Fever 3?
For the first time in the company’s history, Switzerland-based Urban Games is not only developing, but also self-publishing Transport Fever 3. This allows the studio to maintain full independence and focus entirely on delivering a product of the highest quality”. Then removed it when you sold out to Paradox. You don’t write this in your mission statement then do a 180. At a guess this has been on the cards for a long time and you have sat on it knowing the backlash it would cause.
I have removed TF3 from my wish list like some many others in the community. It is very sad as I was really looking forward to putting 100s of hours into it as I have done with TF and TF2. It was a guaranteed pre purchase for me until now as I will never support anything that has Paradox name on. They are worse than EA and Ubisoft combined.
Well, you must understand that by making such a deal, you’ve put yourself in the crosshairs of your own fans and the gaming community itself. Now, whether you like it or not, players will be much more closely monitoring your activity, the state of the game upon release, and, most importantly – what happens next (hello DLC++). For the public, you’re no longer “that good company that does things differently.” That’s just how it is, regardless of any objectivity. You and your PR department were aware of the potential explosion in the fan community, as well as the damage to your reputation (let’s be honest, Paradox is known for its problems and impact on games).
I don’t plan to remove the game from my Steam wishlist, and I planned to buy it even if there were some issues at release, because you’re trying hard and I like your games. But with the “Paradox Interactive” label – you’ll be treated completely differently now, even though Paradox doesn’t influence the release in terms of quality and you own the IP (but as Shiro noted, we don’t have public information on how much influence Paradox will have in terms of financial pressure – and that could certainly impact the release and future of the game).
We’ll see what happens. You earned my trust thanks to TF2.
I hope you haven’t chosen money and one quarter’s revenue over my trust and the trust of gamers like me.
Things like that don’t come back, especially given how tired we are of the current state of the gaming industry.
Good luck.
Thank you for the supportive comment. Our responsibility now is to prove what we’ve been saying so far – that the game, and subsequent support continues to represent the standards that we at Urban Games have set across our previous games. We hope to be able to demonstrate that the concerns voiced in the community wrong, and ultimately it is the game that will prove that. Those voicing their scepticism are not unreasonable in doing so, it just puts the burden of proving our word squarely on us.
Hallo Sam
das hat alles damals Colossal Order auch gesagt . Was wurde geliefert . Ein Kaputtes unfertiges Spiel . Wenn man zwischen den Zeilen lesen kann , wollte CO den Release von CS 2 verschieben
nur auf Druck von Paradox , wurde es so veröffentlicht . Und bis heute habt ihr leider keine richtigen Gründe vorgelegt warum ein publisher an Borad kommt ?
Ich hoffe so sehr das eure Versprechungen , in taten und Wahrheiten umgesetzt werden.
Well lets start by mentioning i pulled it off the wishlist with this anouncement. for me it is quite simple, i dont trust paradox. i dont believe Paradox will be satified by only do the publishing, i think for those wo read carefully it is even said so in these short press releases. Paradox themselves write and i quote ” Transport Fever 3 is a perfect fit for the Paradox portfolio” a statement which already makes it much more than just a publishing deal. which is again repeated by paradox stating “what we are looking for in a new title. so by there oqn statement paradox have added a new title to theire portofolio.
Now call me stupid but adding a new tiltle to youre portofolio is much,,,,, Much more than just a publishing deal.
Dont get me wrong i hope to be proved wrong in the long run and that i have read much to deep into the statement of Paradox, but to be frank i dont believe Paradox makes mistakes like this in a statement.
i whish you all the luck in this world and hope this game will be still in urban hands in lets say two yearsm tw years that will be also the time i will give myself watching what Paradox will do to this game,
Hi urban games, I think we are all curious as to how much control paradox will have over the game, we are all not looking forward to every minor update or patch becoming a dlc or their “creative thinking” takes over the game, we all want you guys to remain in full control of the game and keep their greedy game ruining hands far away from our beloved game series. You guys have done phenomenal work over the years and i sincerely hope you keep going for many more years (hopefully without paradox)
My best regards 🙂
Rest assured that your hopes match with our plans entirely. Creative control over the game is purely in the hands of Urban Games, the plans we had before this agreement was made are exactly the same as they are today, and we see no likelihood that this will change.
When I use to work in an industry that straddled News and Public Relations (getting positive news coverage for businesses/governments), I use to remind PR people of the golden rule before working on a project with them… “Don’t lie”. Once you lie, you get yourself into a tangled web, then you get found out, and then you loose all goodwill.
This blog lied right off the very top with with the line “This collaboration is a perfect match and a natural fit, as we both share the same values and commit to a player-first approach, and we’re honored to join forces with such a respected publisher.”
People are not stupid and there’s this little thing called Google search.
A person who has been living undera rock for the last five years, and never heard of Paradox, can do a very quick Google search and discover numerous articles criticial of Paradox botching the franchise of what was previously the gold standard in city builder games “Cities: Skylines”. More so, they can read the times that Paradox criticised the playing community over their negative feedback of CS2, a game they eventually admitted they had published when it was not ready. This is not a player-first approach.
When “From the very beginning, interests of the Transport Fever community have been at the heart of this decision.” was stated, I shook my head in disbelief. If you look anywhere online where the original trailers for TF3 were posted, the comments sections were filled with people who had been burnt by the CS2 experience and were joyful that TF3 was coming, as Urban Games had (at that point) a positive reputation in that community. As to why UG would partner with a publisher who had turned on their fanbase, let’s call a spade a spade – Money. It ain’t great PR, there’s no benefit to the players, it’s just the cold hard cash.
Finally, when I saw these words “… deliver the greatest possible value to players and modders… ” and the avoidence of the topic (except the you won’t be charge “hundreds” comment) confirmed for me one thing, DLCs are coming to TF3. Grow a spine, admit it, outline how many DLCs you’re looking at (and how frequent), what the costs will be and what will we get for each pack.
In closing, the need for Sam (and UG) to make this blog post confirms there’s been major backlash over this decision. The choice by many to remove this game from their wishlist is a smart one. It’s not saying they won’t eventually buy the game, but it has sent UG the right message – that they’ve been put on notice. If you’re game comes out not ready (like CS2) and/or you’re not fully honest about DLCs, the hard earned goodwill will disappear and players will look elsewhere (and the door may open for a new rival, as what CS originally did to Sim City).
For me, like most, this a mixture of anger and sadness. I was excitied about playing TF3 as I had loved TF2. My only caution initially was UG refusing to confirm if they’d finally have left-hand traffic (right-hand drive) like CS, CiM or the old Transport Giant games. Now, with this partnership and defending of Paradox, I feel we might be just getting an ‘updated graphics and a few nice extra functions’ version of TF2, but driven hard by DLCs.
I just found out about this news today, and I’m totally gutted. Reading between the lines of this announcement, it just sounds like corporate marketing speak, far from the UG i used to know, or maybe it always has been, i don’t know anymore. The Community Manager’s comments make them look either naive about what a massive publisher like PDX can force upon their partners, or they are actively hiding something. Look at what happened with subnautica 2, what seemed like a healthy partnership turned into a greedy publisher (which we all perfectly know that PDX is) -krafton find a way to force decisions that hurt the developers and alienated the player base. I truly hope this doesn’t happen to UG. But if they are willingly choosing a path ridden with predatory, paid DLC, then let the market swallow them.
Hello Sam, you don’t have to prove yourselves. I’m sure it will be a good game and you will deliver. However, most of the community is no longer willing to financially support Paradox in buying the game. If you had chosen a different publisher, you wouldn’t have to justify yourselves. I’m honestly sorry that you’re experiencing this now just because of Paradox. That should give you pause. Paradox is the one that has to prove itself, not you. This behavior unsettles the end customer, who decides the success of the series by buying it, since the customer does not trust Paradox. Have you achieved exactly that?
Your fans are pretty disappointed and all this noise is because we still care!
IMO it would be nice if you guys step up and say something. Some official annoucement.
I guess everyone is waiting for it.
Paradox Interactive is a public company and we all know what the incentive to drive the stock price does to companies. It stiffles incentives for long-term development for the sake of quarterly good news. A small private company like Urban Games will have a hard time dealing with this world of short term profit maximization. Yes, it’s only about publishing, but still, it is hard to believe that there won’t be a strong influence on how Urban Games will do business.
Unfortunately bad news and therefore removed from Wishlist. I was really looking forward to this new part but in this way… I have massive doubts.
I sunk several thousands of hours into previous titles all the way from Train Fever. I was very excited for TF3. I was extatic when Colonel Failure was doing the voice overs for trailers. It looked like UG had ears close to the people who loved their previous games.
Now, partnership with Paradox has sown seeds of doubt in 2000+ (so far) customers on STEAM (at least those who bothered to leave a reply). I spent a lot of time there looking at the replys there and it looks like significant part of the community lost a lot of hope with this annoucement. I think the majority of resentment stems from the fact that the annoucement was extremely vague, talking about “shared values” (i wouldn’t want to share values with current Paradox) instead of why exactly did UG need this partnership. And because they care about the game. I don’t buy claims that this will make publishing easier. Not even for 0 Swiss Franks.
I, for one, will not be buying the game blind on release anymore. I’ve seen what partnerships with bad publishers can do to great game franchises and good studios. To me, no number of claims can convince me that there will be no backseat driving from the “partnership” and that the game quality and contents won’t be affected. I will be watching the release, the reviews and playthroughs very closely. Should i then buy it and get burned by the things that “there were no plans of” anyway, then this will be the last title i get from UG. I’m sure many people share my sentiment, or are even more radical. The ball is in your court and the audiience that was previously watching the game witch excitement, now watches with dread.
I guess the question we dont know the answer to – How big was the truck of money that Paradox drove up to your door?
Paradox was obviously very aware of what TF3 was going to do to the genre and leave them behind.
This announcement indeed comes as a surprise, but definitely not a positive one. Quite the opposite, in fact. Partnering with Paradox may just be the single worst decision that could have been made for this game. The Transport Fever Series is beloved by its community, and this partnership announcement is a complete betrayal to the fans who enjoyed your games for over a decade. Regardless of how this decision is defended, people are naturally cynical towards a publisher infamous for bloated DLC, false promises, ignoring game-breaking bugs, and shuttering studios. It is not reassuring to see vague communication coming from Urban Games-affiliated accounts attempting to reassure other user’s concerns. There have been many instances of studios “reassuring” their fanbase after partnering with a controversial AAA publisher, only for fans’ fears to be realized as the studio follows the pitfalls of the corporate gaming industry.
Like many others on here, I also once had the game wishlisted on Steam, but now I no longer do, and my decision has been made solely due to this partnership. It is crystal clear, from the overwhelmingly negative responses on this blog to the many posts on the Steam Forums and the mass unlisting of TF3 from many user’s wishlists, that this decision has left a very bitter taste for the vast majority of your fans. I’m not even sure the enshіttifiсation will make up for the massive loss in sales revenue. For as long as the Urban Games-Paradox partnership stands, I will not be buying another product from Urban Games.
C’est inquiétant…
Oh no… I used to be a fan of Paradox, I used to buy their games and DLCs, but being burned again and again by empty promises and buggy releases, I just gave up on them. So yeah, this is definitely a surprise. And definitely NOT a positive one. Seeing how Paradox runs into the ground everything they touch, I’m very concerned for the future of TF3. Good luck on your decision. You’ll need it. Hope you don’t end up like a Colossal Order.
Auch ich muss zugeben das ich über diesen Schritt verwundert bin. Ich war wie viele wahrscheinlich davon ausgegangen das TPF keine Unterstützung von außen braucht da der Vertrieb der letzten Teile aus Verbrauchersicht scheinbar sehr gut liefen. Auch was die Portierung auf die Konsolen angeht war nichts negatives von außen zu verzeichnen. Ich hoffe das es bei der Strategie hier nur die reine Vermarktung geht und keinerlei Eingriffe in die Termin und Qualitätsplanung von Paratox Interaktiv erfolgen kann und wird. Auch würde ich gern wissen wie es mit der Workshopunterstützung aussieht. Denn mir stellt sich die Frage warum jetzt schon Modder an Mods arbeiten wir aber keinerlei Infos dazu bekommen (Welche Art etc). In mir wächst die Angst das man mit den Mods aus der Kommunitie Geld verdienen möchte. Ich hoffe das ich da falsch liege.
Unsere Beziehung zu Paradox besteht darin, dass sie eine unterstützende Rolle bei der Veröffentlichung des Spiels übernehmen. Wir haben keine Pläne, Paradox-Dienste zu integrieren, beispielsweise den Launcher oder Paradox Mods, und behalten sowohl bis zum Release als auch darüber hinaus die vollständige kreative Kontrolle über das Spiel.
Das Curated Mods Program ist ein vollständig von Urban Games betriebenes Projekt. Es wurde geschaffen, um unseren bestehenden Moddern frühzeitig Zugang zum Spiel zu geben, damit sie sowohl neue Dinge ausprobieren als auch Feedback dazu geben können, wie sich das Spiel für Modding anfühlt und damit arbeiten lässt. Im Gegenzug erhalten sie engeren Zugang zum Entwicklungsteam sowie zusätzliche Unterstützung bei ihren Projekten. Die Art und Weise, wie Modding im neuen Spiel funktioniert, wird dadurch noch zugänglicher als bisher, mit besseren Tools, besserem Support und einer besseren Erfahrung sowohl für Modder als auch für Spieler. Wir planen keinerlei Creator Packs oder irgendeine andere Form von bezahlten Mods. Das Ganze ist ausschließlich daraus entstanden, dass wir wissen, wie wichtig Mods für das Spiel und die Community sind, und wir das Modding besser machen wollen als je zuvor.
Vielen Dank für die positive Antwort. Jetzt ist nur noch die Frage offen ob es wieder eine Workshopunterstützung geben wird oder nicht.
This is a disaster.
So, here goes: I’m removing TT3 from my wishlist. Paradox has proven over the last five years to be extremely anti-consumer, pushing several games into early release. Their own titles are a bugged mess, and everything is turned into DLC—even core parts of the base game. Every single release is getting mixed reviews at best.
It’s not just that I don’t trust Paradox; I also don’t want my money going to them. They have become a legitimate cancer on the gaming industry.
Muss man eigentlich froh sein, dass nicht EA (SimCity) der Partner wurde? Welche Wette muss man verloren haben, ausgerechnet mit Paradox eine Partnerschaft einzugehen?
Ihr habt euch da meiner Meinung nach selbst ein Ei ins Nest gelegt, ich glaube, bis das Gegenteil bewiesen ist NICHT an einen Erfolg!
Gerne hätte ich das Spiel vorbestellt, mein Bauchgefühl sagt mir “Finger weg!! ”
Ich bin aus diesen Gründen bis dahin raus und hoffe, ihr könnt euch beweisen und zeigen, dass es kein Fehler war, und Paradox sich um 180° Grad wendet!
Ich hoffe ich irre mich, aber ich kann meinen Betrag den heute hier geschrieben habe leider nicht mehr finden. Wurde er rausgenommen und wenn ja warum?
Wenn dem so ist habt ihr eine Käuferin weniger. Fragen mit der Sperrung/Löschung des Betrags zu beantworten finde ich nicht wirklich nett. Ich gehe aber mal davon aus das ich mich da irre und es eine Antwort dafür gibt.
Entschuldigen Sie bitte die Verzögerung bei der Freischaltung Ihres Beitrags. Da dieser Kommentarbereich in der Vergangenheit häufig von Spam betroffen war, wird jeder Beitrag manuell freigegeben. Ihr vorheriger Beitrag wurde inzwischen freigeschaltet und Ihre Fragen hoffentlich beantwortet.
Ich bin sehr froh das ich mich geirrt habe und Entschuldige mich für die falsche Annahme in aller Form! Ich versichere mich in Zukunft mehr in Geduld zu üben.
VG Aya
I trust Urban Games’ judgement on this as they’ve proven themselves as amazing devs with TF1 and 2. But please, Urban Games, don’t do stuff that people don’t want you to do:
1. No 10 payed DLCs every year (We’re fine with having larger rarer DLCs, just please don’t let Paradox set you guys DLC or sales milestones)
2. No Paradox launcher, ever. Use the modding tools that you guys see fit, just not Paradox’s.
3. Keep Paradox OUT of the development process. This has to be the biggest concern, Urban Games made amazing titles and we simply want you to continue what works, do not let Paradox influence your workflow.
If these issues won’t come out of this partnership then I’ll be happy for whatever support you guys can receive from Paradox! Excited for the release!
What you have described is the plan that we have and are working on. We see no reason that this should change at any point. Our goal is to bring you a great game, and we are on what we believe is the right track to doing so.
Thank you for the support, we sincerely believe the game will live up to your expectations.
Hello Urban Games,
I’m sure, you are aware of the fact that this community trusts you. There aren’t many developers out there anymore that can be trusted. Either is their game a performance catastrophe, essential gameplay locked behind pay walls, some shitty launchers necessary etc etc, or all of that together.
You guys were nothing of this…. so far. Even Ubisoft wanted to bring some actual happiness to their gamers once.
But also, every developer seems to go that way at some point during their existence. The funny thing is, that by doing this, and the reason is always entirely to gain more money, the developer will loose against the big players in the industry (at least most of the times), or being simply ruined by the people they are partnering with. Gaining money isn’t the issue. And you wouldn’t have had any problems with that once the game would have come out, thats for sure.
But why this step? To gain more audience? To make MORE money, is that the issue? The release is apparently during 2026, there isn’t even a release date yet, and there are only 7.5 months left. Is there more money needed because the game is in a similar state as the most recent paradox catastrophe? Sure, you are saying that the game is feature complete, but that’s the point, you are just saying it. For example, you also say that there is no plan to use the Paradox Launcher. How is the saying: “Plans are there to be changed” . For how long are you working with Paradox by now? Surely you didn’t just meet each other for the first time a day before this announcement was made. There are so many questions, that are asked, not a single one was honoured with an actual answer that is more than just PR blabla. Were you guys not aware of the shockwave this would send through YOUR community? Either blind or you already reached the point were money is the only thing that matters to you.
Found an article from a long time ago where the founders of UG said that they loved Railway Tycoon, but there dream was to make one even better and share it with the world. How much is left of this?
I am not expecting an answer to this, especially not an answer that actually goes into the depth of this. Funny thing is, buy not answering you also tell me so so much. I however still challenge you.
To go out into the world and tell the people that trust you what is actually going on. I don’t think you will. Which says thousand times more than all your PR blabla together.
The fact you guys haven’t said anything after all the backlash really just proves that you don’t care about your community and only did this for the money… How disappointing…
You should’ve gone with Hooded Horse if you no longer wanted to self-publish. That at least is a publisher with a _good_ reputation in this space. Paradox is going to push you for ever more DLC. Easy money at first – but yeah, I doubt it’s going to be any of mine. 🙁
Here we go. Good Bye Transport Fever 3. I will never support the DCL politic of paradox so in this case Transport Fever 3 is a no go for me.
Cheers
We understand that games need consistent revenue to ensure the long-term development of the company, and we can accept to some extent the model of unlocking more playable content through DLC. However, we absolutely cannot accept Paradox Interactive’s practice of splitting the game’s original content into an endless stream of DLC, which should have been an integral part of the game itself. We love TF not only because the game itself is very fun, but also because of its open-ended gameplay and large community. We understand that games need consistent revenue to ensure the long-term development of the company, and we can accept to some extent the model of unlocking more playable content through DLC. However, we absolutely cannot accept Paradox Interactive’s practice of splitting the game’s original content into numerous DLCs, which should have been an integral part of the game itself. We love TF not only because the gameplay itself is very fun, but also because of its high degree of openness and large player community.
The plans we’ve had for the game haven’t changed at all due to this new publishing agreement. We will be releasing the game exactly as we planned to, later this year. The same is true of how the game will be supported after the launch – there are no changes to the way we plan to support the game, nor do we expect there to be. Urban Games retains full control over the IP and the creative direction of the game.
Ich sehe es wie viele andere hier, ich kann – für den Spieler – NICHTS Gutes hier erkennen! Paradox hat einen berüchtigten Namen, ist bekannt für dutzende Paid DLC bei jedem Spiel und sogar als Vernichter von Spielereihen, spätestens mit Cities Skyline 2. Was wollt ihr uns daran als gut verkaufen? Wobei gar nichts, ihr wisst es ja selber! So sehen auch eure Antworten hier bisher aus.
Ihr sagt “Das Spiel kommt komplett mit allen Features raus”, sagt “Wir folgen den bestehenden Plänen für TF 3”, was gut ist, ihr sagt ABER – fast krampfhaft kommt es mir vor – NICHT “Es wird nicht (mehrere) bezahlte DLC pro Jahr geben!” und ich sage mal, wo die Sorge um DLC hier so oft angesprochen wird, aber von euch NICHT EINMAL explizit dementiert wird, dann muss man leider feststellen, das kann man leider auch als eine Aussage Eurerseits werten.
Ich vermute also auch TF 3 auf mehrere bezahlte DLC setzen wird und damit auf den üblichen, psychologischen Effekt solcher DLC: “Es existiert, ich habe es nicht, ich muss es kaufen, sonst habe ich nicht (mehr) die volle Experience.”, eine Art FOMO im Sinne von “Ich verpasse etwas, wenn ich es nicht kaufe”. Und ganz ehrlich, ich halte diese Praktiken für unethisch! So sehr, dass ich TF 3 erstmal von meiner Wishlist genommen habe und abwarte. Kann dann in 5 Jahren immer noch die um 90% rabattierte Version mit allen 30 DLC kaufen statt beim spielen ständig von dem Gefühl getrieben zu sein JETZT mehr Geld ausgeben zu müssen für das neuste DLC, weil mir sonst was fehlt zur Gesamterfahrung.
—
I see it the same way as many others here—I can’t see ANYTHING good in this for the player! Paradox has a notorious reputation; it’s known for releasing dozens of paid DLCs for every game and even for ruining game series, most recently with Cities: Skylines 2. What exactly are you trying to sell us as a good thing here? Nothing at all, you know it yourselves! That’s what your answers here have looked like so far.
You say, “The game is coming out complete with all features,” you say, “We’re following the existing plans for TF 3,” which is good, BUT—it seems almost forced to me—you do NOT say, “There won’t be (multiple) paid DLCs per year!” And I’ll just say this: since concerns about DLC are brought up so often here, but you haven’t even explicitly denied them, then unfortunately, one has to conclude that this can also be interpreted as a statement on your part.
So I suspect TF 3 will also rely on multiple paid DLCs and thus on the usual psychological effect of such DLCs: “It exists, I don’t have it, I have to buy it, otherwise I won’t have the full experience (anymore),” a kind of FOMO in the sense of “I’m missing out if I don’t buy it.” And honestly, I consider these practices unethical! So much so that I’ve taken TF 3 off my wishlist for now and am waiting it out. I can always buy the version with all 30 DLCs at a 90% discount in 5 years instead of constantly feeling pressured while playing to spend more money NOW on the latest DLC, because otherwise I’ll be missing something from the full experience.
That you are saying that you share the same values as Paradox is a Major Red Flag. Paradox does not respect Gamers and has zero respect for the gaming community. They are only in for grabbing as much money they can from gamers for games or DLC’s that don’t work. You saying we share the same values tells us enough.
After CS1 I decided that the mobsters at paradox won’t get any of my money ever again. And that means that I won’t buy TF3.
I ‘ll go on playing TF2 untill Paradox goes cray on that one. In case you don’t know it, signing up with Paradox will kill Transport Fever and possibly your company. ( They have proven even that over and over again).
I took TF3 off my wishlist and I will wait till a new developer steps in the void you will be leaving.
The wording in your announcement and all subsequent replies suggests you were perfectly aware of the customer sentiment around PDX, and aside from the few vague details you are telling us, there are plenty of things you are careful NOT to say.
It just looks to me, that you have assessed the risk and decided it is worth losing the most engaged and vocal users and just bet on the silent majority that does not care that much – they will buy your games anyway.
You have taken your business decission, I have taken mine. As just an average Joe, I have no power over big corporations other than try not to participate in their business and not support them financially, and this is exactly what I’m going to do right now. You support corporate greed, I oppose it as much as I can, so I will take my business elsewhere.
Thanks for ruining the game on the last 100m. The game has now a bitter taste worse than switch cardridges. And player centric and Paradox? that is like Night and Day so total opposites.
Welp, it’s the end of the Transport Fever series as we know and love it. Prepare yourself for:
-Bugs that don’t get fixed as developers need to make DLC’s
-Subscription passes
-Content getting stripped from the base game into DLC
-Forced to use paradox store/launcher and paradox account
-“Creator Packs” instead of mods
How much money did they give you? Was it worth killing off all trust anyone had in you?
As much as other games may contain such elements, please know that nothing you describe is planned for Transport Fever 3. Urban Games has full creative control over the game, its launch and subsequent support.
Then why pick paradox of all possible publishers??
Nothing is planned right now, but it’ll be forced upon you by Parasite soon enough. You just handed the keys to the devil – now you gotta dance with them and hope you don’t get burned.
Hallo
Wir sollten Urban Games vertrauen . Ich war auch die erste sehr sehr enttäuscht von diesem Deal . Ich habe mir aber Tage lang überlegt warum und wieso .
Und wir kennen ja auch Vertrag ja garnicht zwischen UG und Paradox . Vielleicht ist der ja auch so gut abgesichert . Das Paradox wirklich nur als Veröffentlichter ist und mehr nicht .
UG ist leider kein großes Studio , vielleicht ist es alles einbisschen zuviel geworden grad mit der Veröffentlichung auch der Konsolen Version .
Vielleicht sichert so UG auch die Weierentwicklung von Transport Fever 3 nach Release ab . Im Sinne von UG .
Ich werbe um Vertrauen für Urban Games .
Hello,
We should place our trust in Urban Games. At first, I, too, was very—indeed, *very*—disappointed by this deal. However, I spent days thinking over the reasons why.
After all, we don’t actually know the details of the contract between UG and Paradox. Perhaps it is structured in such a way that it is well-safeguarded—ensuring that Paradox acts strictly as a publisher and nothing more.
Unfortunately, UG is not a large studio; perhaps things simply became a bit overwhelming for them—especially with the simultaneous release of the console version.
It is possible that this move also serves to secure the continued development of *Transport Fever 3* following its release—acting in UG’s own best interest.
I urge you to place your trust in Urban Games.
Nein, Sorry, tut mir leid, ich kann da nicht vertrauen solange sie nicht explizit verneinen können, dass mehrere bezahl-DLC geplant sind (abseits von 2, vielleicht 3 bedeutenden DLC über die gesamte Lebenszeit, das wäre okay). Im Gegenteil, auch wenn ich sehe wie hier und da mal eine Antwort kommt aber die doch sehr direkten Fragen genau dazu (von meiner Seite und Anderen) geradezu explizit übergangen werden, dann ist für mich leider klar, wo es lang geht. DLC Wahnsinn wie wir ihn von Paradox kennen, dann lieber 5 Jahre warten und für -90% mit allen 30 DLC in einem Ruck kaufen und nicht dauernd mit dem Gefühl zu spielen ich verpasse was, nur weil ich gerade nicht 30€ für den neusten DLC ausgeben will und auch nicht nach 2 Jahren zum Spiel zurück zu kommen um dann festzustellen für die gesamte Experience muss ich jetzt doch erstmal wieder 150€ in das Spiel ballern, weil da 12 DLC sind die nicht habe.
@Arestris: Bin da voll bei dir. Ich kann auch rational nicht verstehen, wie manche bei einem Publisher wie Paradox für Verständnis für UG werben können.
Emotional verständlich ist es jedoch… Das ist entweder Stockholm Syndrom oder die User möchten das Spiel so unbedingt haben, dass sie alles für TPF3 zahlen würden. Und schon ist der Plan von Paradox und UG aufgegangen, wenn Hardcore-Fans jeden Preis zahlen nur um das Spiel zu spielen.
Ich habe es von der Wishlist genommen. Hatte Train Fever, TPF1 und 2 mehrere hundert Stunden gespielt und immer zu Release gekauft… TPF3 eben halt nicht. Gibt andere Spiele, die nicht von Paradox vertrieben werden.
Schade, dass es in den Management Folien die nach Release in der UG Chefetage gezeigt werden keine KPIs geben wird, in denen der Verlust durch den Seelenverkauf an den Publisher dem Gewinn durch eben diesen gegenüber gestellt wird.
Schade um UG… Paradox kommt nicht in die Library.
I’m sad to hear these news. I really enjoyed both TF and TF2 and was super hyped about TF3. But now the hype has been replaced of the fear of a Paradox-style game release. I fear a basic game on Day 1, with DLCs that add the feature that were promised or showcased before. I’m not saying that everything is bad, but we lack a bit of transparency on what is actually going on. I know these agreement contain confidential stuff, but please remember that it’s not Paradox, nor the shareholders that will make this game successful – it’s us gamers. Please reassure us that the game that we are eagerly waiting will keep up with our expectations.
Everything we have shown up to this point, and more beyond that will be included in the game on day 1. Our plan for the game is completely unchanged for launch. If you were anticipating the game based on what we’ve shown so far, there’s nothing that should interfere with that, everything we had planned is proceeding in the way we intended.
This is actually the first forum post I have ever written in my entire life. But this one simply had to come out.
I’m 48 years old, and I’ve spent countless evenings over the last decades building cities, optimizing transport lines, and losing myself in games like Cities: Skylines, Transport Fever, SimCity, and many others. These games are more than entertainment to me. They are places where creativity, patience, and passion come together.
So when I first saw the announcement about the partnership between Urban Games and Paradox, my first reaction was honestly:
“Oh dear… this cannot end well.”
Maybe that sounds dramatic, but as a long-time gamer, I’ve seen this pattern too many times before. A passionate studio creates something special, builds trust with its community, and then suddenly a large publisher enters the picture — and everything slowly shifts toward DLC strategies, subscriptions, monetization systems, and shareholder expectations.
After calming down a little, I told myself I should at least try to understand the situation properly before judging it. So I went through Paradox’s portfolio and their current storefront.
And honestly… I was shocked.
Not because of exciting new titles.
But because what I mostly saw were DLCs, subscription models, annual passes, expansions on top of expansions, and monetization everywhere. What hit me especially hard was seeing Surviving Mars — one of my favorite games — essentially relaunched and surrounded again by expensive additional content instead of simply offering a complete experience.
I’m personally not a fan of “renting” games instead of owning them. Nowadays I usually wait until games are near end-of-life, buy them on sale with all DLC included, and then enjoy the full experience in peace.
Transport Fever 2 was different for me.
I bought it on Epic first.
Then I bought it again on Steam just for the Workshop support.
And yes — with the Deluxe DLC.
Why?
Because Urban Games earned my trust.
You created a brand that stood out in a genre increasingly dominated by corporate strategies instead of player passion. You built goodwill with your community over many years.
But trust is fragile. Extremely fragile.
I’m not trying to interfere with your business decisions. I understand that studios need partners, resources, marketing, and financial security. But I would be lying if I said I’m not deeply worried that Transport Fever 3 — honestly one of the very few games I would have bought Day One even for 100€ — could become a vehicle for monetization strategies designed more for shareholders than for players.
You know yourselves that this announcement caused a firestorm in the community.
And starting from May 6th, people will inevitably look at Urban Games differently.
Every future DLC will now be viewed through the “Paradox lens.”
A Day-One DLC? The forums will explode.
Additional monetization systems? The pitchforks will come out immediately.
And if the game underperforms because of community distrust, I honestly fear what consequences that could have for Urban Games itself.
You wrote that the roadmap has only changed minimally.
The thing is: you know the roadmap.
We don’t.
And that uncertainty is exactly what scares people.
What makes me sad is that many players will now measure Urban Games by Paradox standards instead of by the values you spent years building for yourselves. That’s unfair in some ways, but it’s also the reality you are now facing.
For me personally, Paradox has never improved any of the franchises I truly loved. Too often it became:
“You want the full experience? Buy this DLC too.”
“The real fun starts with the next expansion.”
“And then another one.”
That exhaustion is real for many older players like me.
No matter what benefits this partnership may bring behind the scenes, I genuinely believe this decision has seriously damaged the trust of a large part of your fanbase.
And honestly… that’s a very bitter feeling.
Sam, or you are pretending or you really are struggling to understand what your customers are saying to you!
Nobody here is disputing you or your company… Everybody here are telling you that they will not give money to Paradox… It is not very hard to understand… Why you keep repeating that the game will be the same??? That’s not the subject here…
All I can say is that if we all vote with our wallet, we will retain the power…
Until you change your strategy direction and have involvement with Paradox, I have no money and no time for you…
Keep repeating your self like a broken record, if it keeps you happy, but start to pay attention… We are not stupid!!!
Guys, you had a very strong financial position following the massive success of Transport Fever 2. Was the USD 25 mio TF3 project too ambitious? Did you go bankrupt? Paradox had to bail you out? I see no other reason for this partnership. You were actually kind of competitors, right? UG had such a big and loyal fan/player base. Now, I’m very disappointed and as Isee, I am not alone. I really enjoyed playing TF2 and was very excited about the new release. I still have the giant maps I created with the different game saves so I can make alternative solutions to the same challenges without the fear of missing or the need of buying a new DLCs. Now, the excitement was replaced by disappointment. What a bad decision by your management…
Das ist für mich eine sehr schlechte Nachricht. Ich werde TPF3 unter diesen Umständen nicht zum Release kaufen und erstmal ein Jahr abwarten. Von einem Publisher, der mit seiner Community bis heute! so umgegangen ist wie Paradox mit City Skylines 2, wollte ich eigentlich überhaupt kein Spiel mehr kaufen. Transport Fever war für mich eines der besten und fairsten Spiele dieses Genres und ich konnte den 3. Teil kaum erwarten. Wenn wir jetzt in der Paradox DLC Abzocker Hölle landen ist es für mich vorbei. Ich glaube, es ist zu diesem Zeitpunkt die schlechteste Entscheidung, ausgerechnet zu Paradox zu wechseln. Wie kann man auf so eine Idee kommen? Wirklich Schade!
Sam,
wie wärs mit einem eindeutigen Statement, in dem ihr zusichert:
+ kein Paradox-Launcher !
+ keine DLC’s (zumindest in den ersten 2 Jahren nach Veröffentlichung) !
+ alternative Bezugsquellen (z.B. Steam,…) !
+ Mods bleiben über freie Quellen (z.B. Steam, Mod-Werkstatt usw.) lad- und integrierbar !
Die Fragen, die mich am meisten beschäftigen:
Du hast in mehreren Posts angegeben, daß das Spiel eigentlich fertig ist. Dann veröffentlicht es doch ! (OHNE Paradox !)
Wenn es um Geld geht, wie wärs mit Crowd-/Community-funding ?
Sam,
How about a clear statement in which you give the following assurances:
+ No Paradox Launcher
+ No DLCs (at least not within the first 2 years after release)
+ Alternative distribution channels (e.g., Steam, etc.)
+ Mods remain downloadable via open sources (e.g., Steam, the Mod Workshop, etc.)
The questions weighing most heavily on my mind are these:
You’ve stated in several posts that the game is actually finished. So why not just release it?! (WITHOUT Paradox!)
If it comes down to money, how about crowdfunding or community funding?
this !
Hey Mercur,… I can hear crickets….
Wird keine Antwort zu kommen, wie jedes mal, wenn wer im Grunde nach einer definitiven Aussage zur DLC Strategie fragt!
Das zieht sich hier durch, darauf wird nicht eingegangen, wenn geantwortet wird dann eher ala “Das Spiel wird mit allen gezeigten Features kommen” oder “Unsere Pläne haben sich nicht geändert”, aber NICHT einmal “Nein, wir bringen nicht multiple DLC pro Jahr” oder “Nein, unsere DLC Strategie ist kein Paradox typisches DLC Massaker, wir setzen auf 2 oder 3 bedeutende DLC über die Lebenszeit des Spiels” oder halt was in der Art. Und manchmal sind Dinge die nicht gesagt werden halt auch ein ‘Red Flag’.
It’s a shame—as a longtime TF1 and TF2 player, I was really looking forward to TF3. As a Swiss citizen, I was especially excited that a Swiss studio was releasing such a great game. But now my anticipation has faded—what a pity! I wish the Urban Games team all the best and thank them for their wonderful work in the past. TF3 has just been removed from my wish list.
It’s a shame the community didn’t ask these questions in a more specific way; that leaves little room for detailed answers.
How many DLCs are planned so far? The content and price aren’t relevant to this question.
What influence does Paradox have on all decisions (timeline, content, pricing, etc.)?
If there’s only a vague, evasive answer to that, then at least we’ll know where we stand.
In a conversation, it’s normal to introduce yourself, and that’s what I’ll try to do.
I discovered TF1 when, before a long trip to China, knowing about their Internet problems, I was looking for a game that offered a 100% offline experience, without launchers or telemetry. That’s how I ended up on GOG and choosing you. And when I first launched the game and when I saw how well thought out it was and how complex it was, I became attached to it for years. The native Linux version was what pleasantly surprised me and the one that became a reason to present you as an example and recommend it to everyone at any opportunity. That’s how you became a topic of discussion over a beer with friends, and the screenshots of who and what they achieved in the game filled the dedicated channel in Slack in the company I work for.
TF2 came with technical problems at launch, with the economy and game mechanics much more casual, but with a pause option for the of time, with improved graphics and many others, but most importantly – it remained the same in terms of the values for which I chose you. GOG, 100% offline, Linux.
TF3: I was ecstatic until I saw the new road mechanics that reminded me of CS2 and that I hate like crazy, but I said it was just an illusion. The lack of GOG in the supported platforms on the official page, and now this announcement.
I’m glad that you have the courage to respond to the comments, I’m glad that you have the ambition to demonstrate in the future through the quality of the game that we here are wrong, but the evasive tone and lack of real commitments is all too familiar to me, I learned it at MBA and I see it daily in the world of large corporations that I work for and which also comes across to you in my perception until this announcement – a team of enthusiasts who have done a great job with little money and with the support of the community.
I sincerely hope you monetized us well and will use that money for good things, otherwise I really don’t envy you.
I don’t think you, your comunity, Paradox and I share the same values, which is why I think is the root case of what you see right now in comments. Life has taught me that this matters. what I think it’s time to say goodbye, but not before saying Thank you for a few thousand amazing hours!
P.S. Good luck in finding Head of Art, Lead Producer / Product Owner and Head of Publishing!
I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I have seen your replies that you have control over the game and that your planned post-launch support hasn’t changed even after this publishing deal. And I believe that.
But I hope you keep an eye out. I hope you can realize that slow burns over time are as big a concern as big sudden changes. Publishers can start with tiny requests that accumulate over time, and devs don’t realize it’s happening. Some publishers are sneaky, and before you know it, you’ll be trying to convince us that the things you are adamant won’t be present in TpF3 are good things to have in TpF4.
That is, of course, unless this is just a deal for the TpF3 release and you are not officially under the Paradox umbrella.
But for the time being, I’m looking forward to when TpF3 comes out.
Best wishes.
Wow I’m only reading this news now,
I bought Train fever on DVD rom, Train Fever 2 on steam, Transport Fever on steam on release day and same for Transport Fever 2
I know from what your team has replied here that release will be the exact same a planned and I believe that alright but I will now have to wait a year or two, to buy transport fever 3, what a bummer,
I can’t buy this on release day, not knowing if dlc after dlc will come out and I just don’t want to own the base game now not knowing you’ll take you’re usual approach to DLC’s etc
Bad news!
OMG!. Was it really necessary to partner with the worst video game company in the world? I’ll think twice before buying the game…
Well, then we can go ahead and add multiplayer now. Or come up with something else to make it stand out—otherwise, it’s really a total bust.
Paradox is doing a good job, but I’m still worried it might turn into a DLC nightmare…
yeah i also realy hope the game gets a multiplayer mode it could be realy fun to play the game with friends
Are they going to turn this game into a dump Cities Skyline 2 is?
As a long time fan of Train Fever, this is the worst news I‘ve had with this series. Usually I buy the game with release but this won‘t be the case this time. Looks like we will get cash cow DLCs. Maybe not direct after start, but I don‘t see any long time advantage of this. Really sad new.
This was a mistake. The community reaction on Stream is up to 194 pages of negative comments and as of this note, no upvotes. Can you get out of this deal while there is still time to turn this around? If I were you, I’d be looked for a way out and quickly. Personally I’ve played hundreds if not thousands of hours of both TF1 and 2 and I love both titles so it really hurt me to de-wishlist TF3 but in light of this decision, I did.
So… it has been complete radio silence from Urban Games ever since May 6th.
At this point I’m honestly starting to wonder if the entire management, community team, PR department — or whoever is responsible for communicating with the people who actually buy the games — collectively took the Paradox money and went on a nice extended holiday somewhere without internet access.
Because surely there must be some explanation for this level of silence after dropping an announcement that basically detonated a small nuclear device inside the community.
I mean, usually when your playerbase is nervous, worried, and asking legitimate questions, you would expect at least a tiny attempt at reassurance.
A short statement.
A roadmap clarification.
A “we hear you.”
Anything.
Instead, we got absolutely nothing.
Which, unfortunately, makes every concern people had look more believable by the day.
Maybe the strategy is:
“If we stay quiet long enough, people will calm down.”
Spoiler:
That rarely works on communities built around management games.
We optimize problems for fun. We notice patterns. And right now the pattern looks suspiciously familiar.
The sad part is that before all this, Urban Games had something many studios would kill for:
Trust.
Not hype.
Not marketing.
Real trust.
And watching that slowly evaporate because nobody can spare five minutes for transparent communication is honestly painful to see.
But hey — maybe the next DLC announcement will explain everything.
Nah, Sam has replied multiple times here. So they are here, they even read here. But thing is, even with that they desperately avoid answering one of the most pressing questions, that about the DLC (and their numbers). And for me at least, desperately not answering a question is also a statement and not a positive one.
Yes, of course Sam responded. A lot of words without really saying much. Mostly management-style corporate talk. That’s exactly why I mentioned transparent communication with actual substance.
I would genuinely appreciate it if we could finally get a proper roadmap: a release date, plans regarding DLCs and expansions, and the post-release support strategy. So far, none of that has been communicated.
I’d also be very interested to know how much of the money I pay to Urban Games for the game will actually end up going to Paradox. Honestly, they shouldn’t see another cent from me.
Does this mean TF3 cannot be purchased via GOG?
I really want to BUY games and play them OFFLINE (on Linux) – everywhere, at home, on train, etc. I do not want to RENT them, I do not want to register an account somewhere to be allowed to play an offline game.
This was the reason in the first place I decided to buy Train Fever, Transport Fever and Transport Fever 2.
Please tell me that I am wrong…
One thing came to my mind today while reading the Urban Games Statement again… Maybe I thought in the wrong direction.
I thought that now, when Paradox partners with Urban Games, all the bad Paradox habits will spread in the Urban Games Management.
But when I read these Statements again:
“They like the direction of Transport Fever 3 as it is, that’s why they entered into the partnership – not because they want to change it.”
and “The post release DLC plan and pricing etc. are not impacted by this partnership”, it came to my mind, that UG has already planned a DLC-Fest in TPF3. Maybe this is, why Paradox likes that “direction”. Maybe this is, why the “post DLC Plan” will be unchanged. And this could be the reason teaming with Paradox in the first place: They know how to dump a s**tload of DLCs, Season Passes, paid Mods and so on on paying (former) customers for max money.
TPF3 removed from wishlist… Bye
That’s actually what I also assume. This explains why they can tell here “It comes with all announced features” and even “We didn’t change our plans” but desperately avoid to answering questions about (the amount of) planned DLC. Desperately don’t say something like “We don’t plan to release multiple DLC, (per year / except two or three big, meaningful DLC over the whole lifetime of the game).”
And so yes, I expect multiple DLC with all it’s disadvantages. I mean, big, meaningful DLC / AddOns, two or three over the whole lifetime of that game would be fine imho, but I can’t stand games anymore releasing one DLC after another, can’t stand games anymore where you’re always think “I miss out on the full experience when I don’t buy now the new DLC for 20 bucks” while playing or, “Oh, wasn’t here for a year, now I’ve to buy those 6 new DLC for 120 bucks or I miss out on the full experience” that’s why I’m personally out if there comes no clarification from Urban games
Sam,
How about a clear statement in which you give the following assurances:
+ No Paradox Launcher
+ No DLCs (at least not within the first 2 years after release)
+ Alternative distribution channels (e.g., Steam, etc.)
+ Mods remain downloadable via open sources (e.g., Steam, the Mod Workshop, etc.)
SImple questions … can we get simple answers about this concerns please, Sam?
Sam has already confirmed that there will not be a paradox launcher.
The others though I am not sure on
A DLC-storm seems more and more likely. I’m playing Stellaris; two money black-holes are too much. Even one is, if I want to be absolutely honest, but I’m trying to be hopeful here. IF the features shown are really coming on Day 1 and IF the amount of vehicles on release is not less than in vanilla TpF2 then I can kill a few hundred hours with TpF3 too. After that, we’ll see.
Oh no
I was looking forward for this one and was so excited about
🙁
When will the new episode be released?
That there will be DLC was quite clear the moment they tested it on TPF2. And yeah, if DLC help financing further development of the game, then I gladly pay for it.
It is noteworthy though, that Sam never answered the real questions. I am not sure yet, if I will preorder or buy on day one or not. I can easily focus on my TPF2 maps and the great mods for that game.
i been waiting soooo long for TF3 and this is the most disappointing news I have heard on your release. i keep checking back with anticipation on the release date and now not even sure i want to play the game with the same enthusiasm.
i for one will wait to see how this new relationship with Paradox plays out before i make my purchase.
This company was one of few I run into from paradox greed. Not anymore.
It’s been 3 months since the last video and a whole month since this announcement. Can we please have some communications please 🙏
It would be cool, if there would be a switch 2 version too. With mouse support it would be a very good fit.
Transport Fever to go is an good argument too – make it real !
Hello,
I have another suggestion for the game (this is unrelated to the Paradox thing).
Wouldn’t it be cool if vehicles actually needed to go into maintenance, instead of just passing through a magic maintenance aura? It would be so cool especially for rail, needing to build actual sidings and such. I think it could be solved by making these sidings a sort of dummy train stations, that can be added in the line planner. The player could then configure this “stop” to only occur say, 1/5 of the times that a vehicle makes the journey. This would also add a stronger strategy aspect to the maintenance mechanic. How long can you afford your vehicle to be in maintenance? Do you have enough replacement vehicles, or will passengers get mad because the service is unreliable? This whole idea could also work for all other types of vehicles, of course. Buses, for instance, could just temporarily return to the depot (so make sure the depot is close to your line, or that you have multiple).
I think this would add some great depth to the gameplay, while I believe that it would be relatively simple to add.
Hopefully you can see value in this idea. Best of luck with the development!
I popped in to read the next game update and saw this instead. And read the feedback. Out of curiosity, I checked the 447 Paradox games listed – sorry 44 games and 406!! add-ons – and discovered I have bought 1 game from them – ever (Stranded Alien Dawn). The sheer number of separate purchases for City Skylines is mind boggling! Never bought into that strategy – literally, even though I love city builders. So please keep TF3 as an intentionally complete game (as promised) and I’m looking forward to buying it. Just don’t expect open pockets.
Usually I never leave comments. Nevertheless, here I had to write one. Very dissapointing announcement as Paradox developt itself to a such a bad publisher I cant buy games from them anymore. Used to love them as I generally are into games they publish. Unfortnuately I am not a billionair and able to buy DLC after DLC after DLC. I would hope that Paradox is findig its way back to provide quality before qantity. Also hope they do not destroy another game studio and wish Urban Games all the best. Would not have expected that but it seems that big promises have been made. Sad to see that but at least the publisher and game developer are happy.
There hasn’t been any news about the game itself for a long time. When will there be new posts about game features?