Confirming speculation dating back several months--and hopes and dreams dating back far longer--Paradox Interactive officially announced Victoria 3 during PDXCON Remixed on May 21. The long-awaited grand strategy game was a surprise announcement for the end of the show, and it will cover a 100-year period and allow for you to play as almost any of the world's countries at that stage in history.

Set between 1836 and 1936, Victoria 3 sees the world undergoing a massive transformation, with the Industrial Revolution creating a world at the end of that timeline that barely resembles the one at the beginning. In traditional Victoria fashion, the focus of the game is on internal bureaucracy and management, with about 50 different trade goods, a whole bunch of different factions and interest groups vying for influence, a customizable law system, and three technology trees that can shape your society in a myriad of ways.

Victoria 3 fashions itself as a "society simulator" and its famous "pops" system returns, giving different populations of people their own characteristics, interests, and numbers within your nation. This can determine their influence and how important it is to please them when making decisions. The Capitalist pop in Prussia, for example, was shown during a media pre-briefing demonstration. They can come into conflict with worker groups based on decisions you make, such as whether to have public options for things like healthcare and require pension plans. Other interest groups care about even higher-level decisions, such as retaining a monarchy or moving to a more representative system.