The PDXCON 2022 game show will take place as a physical event in Stockholm, Sweden on September 2-3, game studio Paradox Interactive has announced – and, what’s more, upcoming 19th-century grand strategy PC game Victoria 3 will be playable for the 500 guests at the show.
In a promotional announcement video released by Paradox on Thursday (watch it below), Victoria 3 game director Martin Anward invites PDXCON guests to “be one of the first 500 ever people to play Victoria 3” on September 2, in what he promises to be “one of the most legendary nights of your life”.
The big reveal of a playable ‘Vicky 3’ demo at the show comes toward the end of the trailer, after a tongue-in-cheek showcase of other ideas for PDXCON being confirmed by Paradox PR and Event Manager Jesse Henning – including Paradox game sessions against the developers; a live orchestra playing soundtracks from their games; karaoke; and a “giant life sized board game with tons of people, moderators, and game masters – megagame”.
You can buy tickets for the event on the Paradox site – but you’d better hurry, since attendance is limited to 500 guests total, and a Paradox representative confirms to Wargamer that tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
We’re also told the tickets are non-transferable, and linked to the name of the original buyer, to protect against the ever-present threat of scalpers.
The announcement comes after the latest Victoria 3 dev diary, last week, revealed a stack of details about the game’s trade systems, as well as ‘Vicky 3’s in-game event chain for the 1839-1860 Opium Wars – which Paradox says can take place not only in China, but “in any country, so long as the conditions are correct”.
Victoria 3 was announced at Paradox’s virtual PDXCON event in May 2021, and Wargamer interviewed game director Martin Anward and designer Mikael Andersson to learn all we could. There’s no Victoria 3 release date yet – but perhaps PDXCON 2022 could change that…