In 1993, French game designer and producer Philippe Thibaut released Europa Universalis: a geopolitical strategy tabletop game in which six or five players shape the fate of a handful of major European powers beginning from the late 15th century up until the year 1792.
Given the extended time period covered, the almost 1500 counters and the bulky manuals that came with it, Europa Universalis has a reputation for being monstrously complex and time-consuming, with some full playthroughs purportedly taking around 60 hours or more.
Nevertheless, the board game turned out to be a hit, and so, Thibaut decided to iterate on Europa Universalis. In the years that followed, Thibaut partnered with Sweden-based video game developer Paradox Development Studio (PDS) in order to release a PC adaptation of Europa Universalis. Thibaut likely saw an ideal partner in PDS due to their work on the Svea Rike series of video games, which were based on an award-winning board game of the same name and... Read more