Stellaris is a 4X grand strategy video game developed and published by Paradox Interactive. Stellaris‘s gameplay revolves around space exploration, managing an empire, and diplomacy and warfare with other spacefaring civilizations. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on May 9, 2016

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Stellaris is a real-time grand strategy game set in space in the year 2200. Players control ships and research vessels among other things, combat is more centered towards the bigger picture, preparation, and strategy. There are also diplomatic options such as alliances and trade agreements with other races. The game begins by picking a species, its ethics, and its technologies. Picking an alien and changing their ethics can change the way information looks; and any species can have any of the ship engineering styles.The player begins with a single planet in their territory, an engineering vessel, a small fleet of warships, a space port, and a science ship. Early gameplay consists of exploring and colonizing space, while mid-game activities focus on diplomacy and governing an empire.In the late game, crisis events can occur that have galaxy-wide implications—for example, an uprising by sentient AI robots or an invasion by extra-dimensional or extra-galactic forces, the former two always being triggered by careless empires. Paradox hoped that this would address a common late-game problem in 4X style games; whereby one faction is so powerful that their eventual victory is inevitable, resulting in frustrating gameplay.

Stellaris was developed by Paradox Development Studios and published by their parent company, Paradox Interactive.The game uses the same Clausewitz Engine that the studio has used since Europa Universalis III in 2007,albeit with some modifications, such as the usage of physically based rendering (PBR). It was officially announced at Gamescom in August 2015.Stellaris was released to the public on 5/9/16.

After launch, the developers confirmed that there would be a number of expansion packs, as well as free updates to address bugs and introduce new gameplay features.The first major patch was released on May 24th, featuring numerous improvements to the AI, as well as an additional playable race.

In a preview of the game at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Adam Smith wrote that Stellaris “could be Paradox’s finest hour, and a landmark in the development of both 4X and grand strategy design.”

At release, Stellaris received favorable reviews, with Metacritic giving it an overall score of 79.A number of reviews emphasised the game’s approachable interface and design, along with a highly immersive and almost RPG-like early game heavily influenced by the player’s species design decisions, and also the novelty of the end-game crisis events. The more mixed reviews also noted that the mid-game could be less satisfying, thanks to an overly simple diplomatic system and a somewhat passive AI.

Less than 24 hours after release, Paradox Interactive announced that Stellaris had sold over 200,000 units, breaking the revenue record for any of Paradox Interactive’s previous titles during the same time period. It almost matched the sales record currently held by Cities: Skylines. It became Paradox Development Studio’s fastest selling game. On June 21st, it was announced that the game had sold over 500,000 units.