Paradox Interactive has launched a Hearts of Iron IV subscription service. Wait, what?
It’s a curious move, certainly, though not entirely unprecedented. Nintendo’s Switch Online Expansion Pack grants you access to Animal Crossing’s Happy Home Paradise expansion as well as all the upcoming Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tracks and bunch of N64 games. But paying a monthly fee for access to a wargame’s expansions, instead of buying them outright? That’s a slightly muddier prospect.
The good news, if you’re a Hearts of Iron IV fan, is that it’s not just the game’s expansions. Our reviewer wasn’t struck by this WWII strategy game when they reviewed it at launch back in 2016 but, going by the Steam reviews, there are plenty of people who get a kick out of it. If you’re one of those people, and you own Hearts of Iron IV, paying $4.99/£3.99/€4.99 a month will net you the following (through Steam):
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- Five expansion packs: Including the naval themed Man the Guns and the recent Eastern Front focused No Step Back
- Two Country Packs: Adding new national focuses for Central European and Eastern Mediterranean nations
- Sound Packs: Including period music and historical speeches, as well as two song packs from the Swedish metal band, Sabaton
- Cosmetic Packs: Special cosmetic skins for Allied and Axis Armour, new ship models and planes of the Eastern Front
- All upcoming expansions and content
In other words, you get access to the current Hearts of Iron IV content and any new content Paradox Interactive creates. So far, if you bought them, the expansions would set you back around £75 and all of Hearts of Iron IV’s content, expansions included, would cost you roughly £130.
Or you can pay £3.99 a month, which would be £47.88 a year (Paradox Interactive has yet to clarify whether there’s an annual discount). Sounds like a bit of a saving, right? Except that if you stop your subscription you would, presumably, lose access to the content.
Perhaps a better way to look at it is if you’re a dedicated Hearts of Iron IV fan you’re contributing to the upkeep of the series, incentivising Paradox Interactive to deliver more content. So if you want to know whether it’s worth signing up for, you’ll have to look to your Heart.
