Their sims-like game is actually developed by Paradox, so it's guaranteed there will be endless paid DLCs.

On one hand, that’s absolutely true. On the other hand Paradox does a good job in maintaining the base game and constantly supplying it with free new features with every expansion.

I am extremely optimistic looking at the CK3 DLCs though - they're closer to the early CK2 expansions that massively rehaul large portions of the game mechanics. I'm not certain if they're fully committed to that direction but it certainly feels better to look at those sorts of expansions than, say, HoI4 or some of the EU4 expansions which are generally just regional flavor packs.

I think they're not enamored of their reputation for crap shoveling and are making a concerted effort to deliver more value with their overhauls and that's why I've never really viewed them the same as skin-pushers like Roblox, CS:GO, The Sims or Fortnite.

PDX has been burned before by releasing DLC features that implicitly depend on other DLC features, and having to release patches that either unblock or kludge around it. The policy of “new mechanics are free, special abilities are paid” seems to me like a hard-learned lesson on maintaining configurations.

sims style DLCs are just a proxy subscription revenue model. As long as people are engaged consumers you can keep developing. If they don’t care about a particular DLC they don’t have to buy it. Sims 4 now has like 8 years of developer labor in it, if you were to install all the content. The original $30 (after retail cut) a user paid in 2015 wouldn’t have sustained that work.

Having to actually pay a subscription is actually much friendlier to players who want to get into the game a couple of years after it was first released. Of course the DLC model is much more profitable overall

If you're getting into a game years later then you probably don’t want all the content at once. Buy the base game with none of the DLC and play that for a while. Then decide which DLC will best enhance your current game; for example you might decide you want an amazing airport in your current city, so you get the Airports DLC. Or you might prefer a large University campus, so you get that one instead. Spread the content out over a year or two so that you are sure to get your money’s worth. Or just ignore the DLC and download mods and assets from the Steam workshop; you could spend a lifetime doing that and never catch up.

> probably don’t want all the content at once

If we’re talking about games developed by Parodox itself I really can’t imagine something like this. Core mechanics in most grand strategy games have usually been changed to a significant degree and while they are technically playable without DLCs the changes were most often made to better integrate the new content. Which overall left the base game in a largely crippled state.

Skylines is a lot better in this regard than something like Stellaris though.

I found https://store.steampowered.com/app/1538960/Crusader_Kings_II... to be an extremely good deal especially because I never tend to play these games continuously for significant periods of time. Obviously they are not offering this for newer games since it would usually lead to people spending 10s of dollars instead of 100s for the same amount of content .