Surprising nobody, Paradox's long-teased Project Caesar is Europa Universalis 5 Once you pop. Image credit: Paradox Interactive News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on May 8, 2025 After a year of faintly enigmatic developer blogs, Paradox has finally unveiled its sort-of-but-not-exactly-mysterious Project Caesar, confirming it to be (just as everyone had expected) Europa Universalis 5 - a "new era for grand strategy". Paradox says Europa Universalis 5 has been in developed for the last five years at Paradox Tinto, a Barcelona-based studio assmembled from 'modders, super fans, and the best developers around the world'. The has been to create "the grandest strategy game" ever, and the result is a "very ambitious" Europa Universalis where players can "do pretty much everything". This time around, players can experience history across a span of five hundred years, formulating their nation's strategy of sustainment and expansion from 1337 to 1837, progressing through the Renaissance era, the age of Enlightenment, and beyond. Key to all this is a "living world" built around "pops". Similar to those seen in other Paradox grand strategy games, these population groups are bound by the likes of a shared culture or religion (300 religions are said to be represented in EU5), and can range from a single person to millions. And here's the announcment trailer.Watch on YouTube Pops are the primary driving force of a nation's econony, working in buildings such as farms and factories to produce goods feeding into all other aspects of EU5. You'll produce food to sustain the population or keep armies moving, for instance, or goods to trade at markets as required. Pops are also split into social classes - from peasants to the clergy and nobility - and further grouped into estates, each with their own thoughts and agendas. And you'll need to keep these groups happy - perhaps granting them special privileges - to pass crucial policies in parliament. How you spend your time is ultimately up to you - you might opt for growth through trade, diplomacy, or military might - but your strategies will eventually guide you through six ages (traditions, renaissance, discovery, information, absolutism, and revolution) and "thousands of historical events". Each age brings different institutions representing the core ideas of their eras and unlocking new technology trees. So players embracing the Quest for the New World institution will, for instance, find it easier to colonise lands during the age of discovery. All this plays out across a "new and larger" world described as the "most accurate and granular map [Paradox has] ever made for a grand strategy game". The means a greater number of nations and "more varied topographical features" - all promising to make for a radically different experience depending on a nation's set-up, neighbours, and even terrain. Geographical features can dramatically impact battle, for instance, with rivers, mountains, and straits all potentially influencing the outcome of war - just be sure not to leave your production houses empty of workers as you swell your ranks on the battlefield. There's a lot more granular detail to be found in Europa Universalis 5's 30-minute long announcement video, but one thing Paradox isn't quite ready to talk about yet is a release date. Currently all it's saying is it's "coming soon".