21/09/2023 We now know more about Millennia thanks to an announcement and new teaser trailer
Paradox is teasing a new grand strategy game, which seems like it may have a lot in common with the legendary 4x series Civilization. So far, not much has been revealed by Paradox itself: just a few images, one of Stone Age man on the main Paradox Twitter account, one of feudal fields on the Crusader Kings III account, and one of a woman retrieving a sword from a cave on the Age of Wonders 4 Twitter. There are also some more obscured panels on an upcoming YouTube video premiering on September 21.
The prehistoric image has also been shared on the website an indie game developer, C Prompt Games, which says it is “creating an epic new strategy franchise”. And they’ve shared more teaser images (some that clearly match Paradox’s blurry thumbnail) showing different points in human history.
It doesn’t take a genius to put the dots together. It seems highly likely that this project is a new 4x game, which, like Civilization, lets you foster a nation from the very earliest days of humanity to some point in the future. We would assume it’s being published by Paradox and developed by C Prompt Games, though obviously nothing is confirmed yet.
C Prompt Games has no titles under its belt to provide us with clues, but its co-founders come with plenty of experience, their names appearing on some lauded games. Ian M. Fischer was the lead designer of Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology, while Robert Fermier was a developer on System Shock 2 and Thief. The company’s ‘About’ page says they “love deep games with systems-based designs, high degrees of replayability, and strong emergent narrative”.
By now, fans seem to have figured out the mystery game’s name. A now-private Twitter account @MillenniaGame was created in June 2023, and was only following C Prompt Games and Paradox. Millennia sure sounds like the kind of name you might give a strategy video game about growing a civilization over thousands of years, though – it’s an outside chance – but it might just be a codename for the unrevealed project.
We’ll have to wait until September 21 to find out exactly what this game will be and how it’ll play? Will it be a turn-based game like Civilization, or follow more closely in the footsteps of other big Paradox titles like Crusader Kings III and Hearts of Iron IV? Only time will tell.
One of the most interesting things about the teaser pictures is that they don’t all seem strictly historical. A screenshot of an underwater city that could’ve come right from Bioshock might be an image from a ‘future’ scenario, but another picture with airships has distinct Steampunk vibes. We might be reading too much into this, but could it be a sign that ‘Millenia’ (if that is its release name) won’t be entirely historical?
Check out our guides to the best Hearts of Iron 4 mods and the essential Europa Universalis DLC. You might also like our Crusader Kings 3 Tours and Tournaments review.