Former Battlefield Producer Gordon Van Dyke Joins Paradox

Gordon Van Dyke, formerly producer at EA Visceral Games, has joined Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive as senior producer. Having worked on a range of Battlefield titles at DICE, Van Dyke will now be helping to drive Paradox's in development titles, while also working on development of Paradox Connect, the company's community networking feature that includes "Paradox Achievements." Van Dyke moves to Paradox from Visceral Games, where he was the franchise producer on an unannounced AAA title. Talking to games blog Joystiq, he explained the reason for his move. "During my time back in California [with Visceral], I married my girlfriend from Sweden and we had a baby. We decided it was best to raise her in Sweden," he said. He was then put in contact with Paradox's CEO Fred Wester, who said, "I got an email from a friend introducing me to Gordon. Two days later he was hired." Wester told Gamasutra earlier in the year that the company is finding it increasingly more difficult to peg as a "niche" PC publisher, ever diversifying from its tradition of strategy titles like Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis into the online and free-to-play space. The company's next game Salem was also announced, a free-to-play MMORPG that will feature Minecraft-like sandbox elements and permanent death for characters.