Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory and Its Mysterious Disappearance
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Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory, Black Shamrock and Cyanide’s CRPG based on a cult-classic pen and paper RPG, launched on the Epic Games Store back in 2019, and was supposed to come to Steam last month. However, that didn’t happen. Instead, the game was pulled from the Epic store, and the only reminder of its existence now is the aforementioned Steam page that still lists “Coming soon” as the game’s release date.
And if you’d like to know more about this puzzling title, you should check out this PC Gamer article that unfortunately doesn’t offer any definitive answers about what happened to it, but in a way, that’s quite fitting for a game centered around a malicious bureaucracy. Here’s a quick excerpt:
I don't think Happiness is Mandatory was removed from sale for being a bit dated and underwhelming, or for flaws like not letting you select party members by simply clicking on them once. It's not great, but it's no Afro Samurai 2. It's possible there's a situation like the legal dispute between Frogwares and Nacon that saw The Sinking City removed from various storefronts (though that game remains available on Origin and Gamesplanet), but even now nobody will say.
I reached out to developers Black Shamrock and Cyanide Studio, and publisher Big Ben Interactive/Nacon, but received no reply. A representative of Epic Games did respond, directing me back to the publisher, who again did not reply. Neither did two of the original tabletop game's creators, although Mongoose Publishing, who print its current edition, did confirm that, "We were not involved in the decision to pull Happiness is Mandatory, and the license is currently available to interested parties."
