Stellaris is the next big grand strategy game by Paradox Development Studios, the people behind Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings 2, Hearts of Iron III and many other grand strategy game. This genre, coined and pioneered by them, operates on a larger scale which emulates the dynamics of geopolitics (read: trying your best to get the font of your nation to be the biggest on the map by any means possible) and the struggles of the time period each game was modelling from. Examples include the medieval times when the Islamic Caliphate was huge but fractured while the Europeans are trying to organise a Crusade, the Renaissance where Europeans started venturing to new lands and colonise them, and even World War II.
But what if grand strategy is freed from the shackles of real world history and geography? Then you will get something like Stellaris. It’s a space themed grand strategy game where you start off in a corner of a galaxy as a customizable race, and you have the opportunity to explore, expand and exploit the surroundings. You read that right, the early game of Stellaris will be something like any 4X game, like Civilization or the Master of Orion reboot. Once you start meeting your neighbours and the borders started touching then you will experience the management that comes from any previous grand strategy games, this time in a galactic scale.
Stellaris was first announced in Gamescom last year, and slow drip feed of info was given via developer diary posts over at the Paradox forums. There isn’t many publicly available footage and press release, until today’s announcement during their GDC livestream and panel. Suprisingly, Stellaris is pretty much in the final stages of development already and will be releasing on May 9.
You heard it here live from #GDC! We have a launch date of 9th May 2016! #makespacegreatagain
— Stellaris (@StellarisGame) March 16, 2016
Yes, they wanted to make space great again. This hat was present during the announcement, so that could be the source of the joke. Anyway, check out this new trailer of Stellaris, with some bits of gameplay being shown. May is slowly becoming a busy month of game releases.