After months of silence following their clash with the player base on many of the Creative Assembly forums, including Steam, one of the developers sparked outrage by saying that ‘The right to discuss is a privilege—it is not an entitlement you earn by playing the game’, Creative Assembly has finally released an apology and updates on what is going on in the background for Total War: Warhammer III and Total War: Pharaoh.
Creative Assembly’s Apology
The formal apology from Creative Assembly is released in their Total War blog post, and Roger Collum, the Vice President at Creative Assembly, takes the helm to state the apology on behalf of the teams behind the games. His full statement is available on the Total War blog post.
To summarize his statements, Roger acknowledges that the Total War leadership team has made mistakes in their relationship with their fans. They recognize the confusion, frustration, and distrust within the community and express regret for failing to demonstrate their deep care for Total War. The team apologized and committed to working towards a more transparent and consistent relationship with their fans.
Furthermore, Roger proclaims that Creative Assembly also acknowledges that Total War, a complex project built on decades of knowledge, passion, and technology, needs to adapt more quickly to address future challenges. They express a willingness to discuss these challenges and what fans can expect from Total War: Warhammer III and Total War: Pharaoh going forward.
Plans for Total War: Warhammer III and Total War: Pharaoh
Aside from the apology letter, Creative Assembly also shared their plans for Total War: Warhammer III and Total War: Pharaoh for 2024.
Total War: Warhammer III
For Total War: Warhammer III, according to Roger Collum, they will now focus on polishing and providing more content to the previous DLC for the game, Shadows of Change, which for many players feels lackluster and did not have the value that matches its pricing, which sits at a whopping $20, 33% of the base game’s price.
To improve this DLC, Roger Callum stated that:
We’re targeting a major update to Shadows of Change which will arrive free for everyone who owns it. We have the goal of releasing this update in February 2024, at which point it will become part of the package for everyone who buys it in the future.
That launch date is our ambition, but this isn’t concrete. It may move, and as soon as those plans are finalised, we’ll let you know and we’ll keep you in the know as we get closer to its release.
When we return in the new year, you’ll hear directly from Game Director Richard Aldridge and the WARHAMMER III team who will start to talk to you about what this expansion to Shadows of Change will look like.
In addition to the improvements to Shadows of Change, the new DLC, Thrones of Decay, unfortunately, has to suffer a setback for its release date, with the new timetable being April 2023. Roger also proclaims that the latest DLC for Warhammer III needs more tuning and work to make sure that they ‘don’t repeat our past mistakes, and to give you the amount of content that you rightly expect from us at these price points’.
Lastly, their plans for 2024 also involve more hotfixes for the game, indicating that they will follow the current approach in improving Total War: Warhammer III, as Roger stated in Creative Assembly’s blog post:
However, over these last few months, we’ve released a game update roughly every two weeks and where we can, we’d like to stick to that through 2024.
Thrones of Decay Delayed, Shadows of Change to Receive Updates.
Total War: Pharaoh
As for their latest game, Creative Assembly through Roger Callum also shared several plans to welcome 2024. For starters, any players who have purchased Total War: Pharaoh through Steam, Total War Store, and their approved retailers will receive a partial refund from their purchase, as stated in their blog post here:
The partial refund is the difference between the price you paid at the time of purchase for your preferred edition and the updated price being offered by your retailer on the Total War: Pharaoh Standard Edition. The total amount of the partial refund varies by edition, retailer, purchase region, and currency.
Moreover, Total War: Pharaoh‘s DLC plans, which include a paid DLC in early 2024, High Tide, will now be a free update for all owners of the base game. They state that they will focus more on providing more map expansions and free content updates to improve upon the core experience of Total War: Pharaoh. Lastly, they strive to bring new cultures and factions beyond Egyptians, Canaanites, Hittites, and Sea Peoples.
These updates to Total War: Warhammer III and Total War: Pharaoh brings new hope for the players as Creative Assembly has decided to wake up, reflect on their past mistakes, and improve their relationship with their fans by giving out updates as a sign of goodwill.
High Tide Free Update.
Source: A Message from Total War‘s Leadership Team; Total War: Pharaoh Updated FAQ – December 2023
