Freshly after receiving another dose of flavor in its Iberian Twilight DLC, grand strategy game Victoria 3 has shared the first details regarding its plans for 2026, which include “major updates to the naval side.”
In a developer diary that also sheds light on the game’s latest hotfix 1.12.2 – likely its final update of the year –, developer Paradox delves into where it’s at with its grand strategy game, which has been successfully turning things around following a fairly rough launch.
Victoria 3 Getting “major naval updates” in 2026
“After tackling trade and markets in [July’s 1.9] update, which was a huge undertaking, we decided to not do as big changes in the next updates for the year - as we said to the community - and focus instead on polish, bug fixing and background prep for future updates,” reads the most recent dev diary.
“Just like when you’re playing an RPG, you’ve just finished a chunk of the main quest, and you head back to your home base and restock, recuperate and plan for what’s next. Maybe do a little crafting and cooking, organize your loot.”
“But then you see that (!) over someone’s head, you think to yourself ‘just one little side quest’ and… yeah, you know how that goes. For us this was first Culture/Discrimination in National Awakening and now Negotiations/Amendments in Iberian Twilight, both of which weren’t part of our main quests so to speak. We also picked up some other minor side quests along the way, such as the changes to elections. Oh, and all the modding upgrades and global journal entries, and…”
The developer explains that “this wasn’t something we had planned to do, but is a result of the passion, creative spark and drive from individual team members, combined with some smart planning on our end that allowed us to get these things done within our normal production schedule,” before admitting that working on these aspects of the game ultimately paid off, as reflected by the positive community sentiment surrounding the game’s most recent updates and DLC.
This change of plans is, however, the reason why we aren’t getting a separate blog post explaining what’s next for Victoria 3, as “our goals remain the same as they were in [July’s] DD159.” The developer did, nonetheless, share that Victoria 3’s “next major update (1.13), will be different though, and will mark a definitive return to the main quest.”
In practice, this will translate into “some major updates to the naval side of the game,” with specific details about Victoria 3’s 2026 updates slated to be shared in a developer diary to be published sometime during Q1 2026.
For the latest gaming news, follow GameWatcher on BlueSky, check out our videos on YouTube. We sometimes include affiliate links in our posts, which grants us a small commission, thank you. Please support independent Games Media. ❤️
