The Lamplighters League is “a Big Disappointment”, Says Paradox Interactive

The Lamplighters League is the latest project from developer Harebrained Schemes, which was released last week to a rather lukewarm critical and commercial reception. Now publisher Paradox Interactive has released a press statement detailing its stance on the game’s financials.

The press release states that the game is set to produce a loss in the company’s financials for the fourth quarter. While the launch of the game on Xbox Game Pass has resulted in “cautiously positive player numbers”, the projected sales for the game are less than ideal. Between this and the already mediocre critical reception, the game is going to cause a loss of 248 million Swedish Krona (MSEK) for this quarter.

“Even though we see cautiously positive player numbers in subscription services, the commercial reception has been too weak, which is frankly a big disappointment. Game projects are by their nature always risky, but at the end of the day we haven’t performed at the level we should. It is painful but makes us more eager to roll up our sleeves and do better,” says Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester.

Game development is obviously a risky venture by its very nature, and there’s always the risk of running such losses if any part of the marketing or reception ends up being less-than-ideal. Paradox Interactive is set to release Cities: Skylines 2 and Star Trek Infinite later this year, so here’s hoping these two end up faring much better than The Lamplighters League.