The Byzantine Video game, ever elusive is an example of an enigma. It needs to be about something that is very obscure but has to be fun and enjoyable at the same time. It is because of these two issues that we still haven’t seen a Byzantine video game. While there has been some movement with Age of Empires IV and its Sultan’s Ascend expansion and this upcoming expansion where the Macedonian Dynasty will be included in it, there is still a lack of a Byzantine specific game.
The issue is that the Byzantine Empire is simply not a popular topic. Ancient Rome has been portrayed so many times in video games going back to the Arcade era. However, we not seen a game where the focus of gameplay is on the Byzantines. It is also not surprising that movies and TV shows have been lacking to provide any inspiration.
Video games by the nature are capital-intensive projects. They require lots of money and labor put into it. Those older 8-bit games were cheaper to make on a small budget. The computers running them were slower and not as powerful but the cost of production was not as high in that age. A company was able to produce many products at quicker rate than in the present.
Modern games require much more investment and then upon release they have to have monetization that changes the nature of the game from a product which is complete into a live service which is changing from update to update. Paradox Interactive in Sweden has a history of changing their games. They have a model which is emphasizing updates and expansions which have a cost to them.
Unlike in the past, such strategy games had maybe one expansion and that was it. The Paradox model is that games such as Stellaris are not able to stay the same; their historical games are also having their rulesets are continuing to change.
A Byzantine game needs to have an identity for it to make money in this environment. Games such as Starfield which have less monetization vs Call of Duty is because of a particular company culture. Bethesda has been supporting modders and even gave away their original Elder Scrolls, Arena as freeware in 2004. Such moves are rare and can only come in this age as an exception that proves the rule that monetization that is holistic is more common. Bethesda did not truly start having such a model implemented into a game until Fallout 76. That game was heavily criticized as Bethesda was attempting to build a Co-Op style Fallout game with monetization in it. However, Starfield showed that Bethesda still cares about the players. People who bought the Premium Edition before release got the expansion Shattered Space for free; such a move is rare. Shattered Space while criticized by influencers for a myriad of reasons, some of it just to get attention on YouTube, was a great example of what makes Bethesda so different from other developers. People say that Starfield was boring, yet Bethesda gets no credit for having mod support and a ship builder within the game which has no microtransactions.
Byzantine History is already a niche topic. Hardly anyone was writing about it outside academia. To expect that anyone would even try now without some big company supporting it. Right now, Age of Empires IV is basically the only game series where the Byzantine Empire has any exposure. It successes can mean that the series will be able to encourage other people to make a Byzantine-oriented video game.
Making a Byzantine video will not be easy. There are many hurdles that to be overcome but I believe that Age of Empires IV’s focus on it will help to bring more to take a look at adapting the history of the empire to more video genres.
Byzantine-Empire.com 