Although I can't call myself an avid player of Paradox Interactive games, I've gotten the real sense that the company has come a long way, even in the last year, in terms of quality. Speaking to Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester, GameSpy brought up the poorly executed Gettysburg: Armored Warfare and its problematic launch.

"That was terrible," said Wester. "We did not do our homework. It was a one-man team with some backup ... we learned a lot from that release. We've had many bad releases before that, as well, and we learned something every time. In 2012, we also closed four game projects. This happened after Gettysburg. We looked at them and said, 'These games are not up to the standards we're currently looking for at Paradox, so we're going to close these projects.' We're not going to have any more games that are unplayable at release."

Reflecting on an internal shift within Paradox, the CEO says that "A few years ago, we simply could not afford to cancel games. We needed to release the best product we could release at the time in order to get at least some of the cash we invested back. Today, thanks to the success of games like Magicka and Crusader Kings 2, the Paradox brand is worth so much more that we can actually afford to close projects that don't meet our new quality standards.

"We turned into a more mature company in the last few years, mature in many ways. This year, you'll start to see much more even quality to our games that we're releasing, and that's a sign of our coming of age." In closing, Wester promised "That's what you'll see from Paradox -- fewer and better titles. The quality improvement is the most important thing we're working on right now."

Paradox Rising: Q&A with CEO Fredrik Wester [GameSpy via GamesIndustry International]