Creative Nonpology (even more shallow, incomplete, broken and buggy than the games)

A reminder of the last time they attempted a strategic nonpology:
• S*xual Abuse Scandal f...
That one was also pure insincere damage control, because the day before the apology came I caught them memory-holing an abuser and predator that they were reported to have enabled for years and actually promoted AFTER he was complained about to HR. And there's also the fact that the whole scandal has been hush hushed ever since, with no "outcome" for the supposed 3rd party investigation. We have heard nothing since their boilerplate acknowledgement.
Also, caught in 1080p:
• Interview With The Dev...
And the contradiction:
gyazo.com/d08b...
Which time were they lying to our faces? Still no reconciliation of this. Still no apology for it.
#ClownAssembly #SmolFamilyCompany #PlsForgib
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[@NickKrige]

The biggest tragedy is the shillfluencers proclaiming "We've won!" when literally all that has happened is CA published some more vapid words.

[@Norbert92]

Its like a toxic relationship, they get lied to their face and abused just for CA to offer a shallow apology (more about being sorry that they got called out than actually fucking up) and they go back to them like they just did a 180°. Surely the lies and money gouging will stop now right? Lol yeah right. Rip the poor devs that got fired right before christmas, i hope they find better jobs

[@RomanHistoryFan476AD]

You really surprised? CA employees could yellow rain over them and these shills would thank them for the water.

[@andrewdelaerranz9648]

Book of shills

[@thatoneoctopus7494]

The Great Book of Shills

[@manmallard]

Andy's Take made me want to throw up.

[@beetheimmortal]

I don't care about their words. I care about good games. Unless they make good games again, I literally don't care.

[@TOKOLOSHE100]

I hear you, the resistance to this simple thing is extremely strange, a disney'esque win at all costs kind of vibe.

[@toddfromwork8931]

Good for them if they do, but I still won't buy it. They don't deserve my money

[@beetheimmortal]

@@toddfromwork8931 That's also completely understandable, to be honest.

[@honeybadger6275]

At this point the only thing games I've played in the last decade that I would consider to be good are a few dozen indie games. Everything that has had a big studio/budget has been trash.

[@beetheimmortal]

@@honeybadger6275 I think the only two games since around 2016 I liked were Elden Ring and Armored Core 6.

[@tastethecock5203]

hope chatGPT devs will get paid for giving a tool to generate this apology

[@Momomomsen]

Them not addressing the mistakes and just saying "we made mistakes" is just hiding what they consider mistakes and what not.

[@Volound]

exactly. theyre sorry they didnt get away with it.

[@Tomo_mo]

I heckin love corporate generic apology. Love everytime it happened.

[@dauntless0711]

The quiet correction of the numerous misspellings of “Pharaoh” in this article is the closest you’ll ever get from CA to an admission they did something wrong.

[@curtyos]

ill give them this at least they didnt use chatgpt... looking at you gaijan

[@imaxinsertnounherex]

I said this on Legend's Video on the topic, but Talk is Cheap. These shmucks have made no real changes or actions that show any improvement, and have garnered me no goodwill toward them.

[@stefankatsarov5806]

@ZoomerStasi I think we ( the people that actially think about the curent state of the games ) know that thouse games you propouse will be super shit when they make them, but because they will sell super well they will make them at some point before they jump ship.

[@TheOriginalFishPond]

While i share peoples skepticism, a 50% off partial refund for everyone who bought Pharaoh is not just talk.

[@imaxinsertnounherex]

@@TheOriginalFishPond for the people who bought in for Pharaoh maybe, but that does fuck all for anyone with the sense to avoid it. They have offered me nothing of value.

[@DonnellGreen]

@@TheOriginalFishPond Yes it is 0 x 0 still equals 0. Lowerings the price doesnt make the game good they just trying to buy people for new dlc scams

[@gustavchambert7072]

​@ZoomerStasithey can't make a good game until they do two things: fire the entirety of current management and develop a new, functioning engine from scratch. Until they put people in charge who understand and enjoy what total war is and care more about making good games than corporate politics nothing will change. And similarly, until they replace the Gordian knot of very mouldy spaghetti that they call a game engine, it's impossible for them to make a good game.

[@christos49]

"We're sorry we got caught treating our consumers terribly, and now that they didn't buy our latest cash grab it has broken our hearts....😢"

[@savasolarov8424]

This, exactly this, is what this apology is. Comment section gets it.

[@Killer-vi4ih]

"We are sorry, keep buying our shit products"

[@noobtube5555]

Saddest part of this letter was how the majority of the consoomers justified this as acceptable and understanding

[@spiffygonzales5160]

I'm less accepting of it. Id say I'm skeptically hopeful.

[@jamessalvatore7054]

Precisely. Dumbasses get what they deserve.

[@Tomo_mo]

"But..but but .. they apologized, surely they finally recognized that they wronged us and now theyre changing for the better right? Right??"

[@Runnin4Trees]

I think people try to be decent, and try to assume the best. Maybe ca execs are trying to exploit this.

[@vikingcathq]

Some people are below 30 and not as jaded as we are. We've all been in the 'CA might get better' phase at one point.@@Runnin4Trees

[@Randomstuffs261]

"We're so sorry that this has hurt us, we are going to be more communicative in a way we can't describe right now, and since we banned our entire fanbase from the forums for no reason, you won't be able to communicate back. Please be patient with us as we take positive steps forward instead of the backward steps we've been taking for a decade. Starting from now, we'll spell Pharoah properly to prove that we're on the right track. Yours sincerely, Bob Rartholemew"

[@MadisonRamanamabangbang]

At least they didn't decide to use the fake "btw dont use death threats!" thing that every company uses to soften any critism. It's a VAGUELY better apology than usual, but they've been sorry before It's kinda hard to give any MORE benefit of the doubt

[@LePoggers-ti5ss]

The apology is such a complete joke. It doesnt take a genius to see behind their real intentions for putting up the apology. They're just doing damage control bc they dont wanna lose the whales that put money into it. It hurt me SO much reading the letter bc the ammount of corporate buzzwords and way of talking is filled throughout the entire thing i just couldnt get myself to take it seriously. The funniest part is when they say how apparently our "confusion, frustration and distrust" "hurt" them, meanwhile these are the same guys who said the right to discuss is a privilege. I loved total war. As a kid i remember putting endless hours into Rome 1. That was my first ever game. Seeing how this series is just a husk of what it used to be pains me the most.

[@Inali097]

If they don’t take the time to resolve the technical debt in their engine, no amount of apologizing matters. The games will remain subpar. Stay strong!

[@awanderer7132]

​@@Inali097Its best to move on to other games I love Total War, and I love Warhammer but the ships sinking, none of us customers are the Captain

[@notgoddhoward5972]

"We are sorry for you thinking we are wrong"

[@TheCleanerDragon]

Apologies will continue until shilling improves

[@egnaroelprup]

Truly the gaming generation of the corporate apology, no major advancement in tech or genres, just idiots pushing out apologies as they scramble to maintain good optics they could have had in the first place if they made a good game

[@monsieursp00ky44]

How right you are, fellow Yukari avi

[@egnaroelprup]

@monsieursp00ky44 Nice, hope you have a blessed day fellow patrician

[@andrewdelaerranz9648]

My fav part is when they talk about the Pharaoh reduced price, they say "we don't think its fair that our fans who put their trust in us should feel disadvantaged for buying the game with the previous price" then why the innitial price of 70€ if it was not fair? They saw that nobody gives a shit about a reskinned troy and are damage controlling like cowards, they are not being honest at all.

[@justsommeguy2021]

It feels so directed towards the Warhammer fanboys that I don’t really see any genuine apology. They threw away their historical base, which are the original fans of the series. They have never really addressed or apologized for leaving us high and dry for a decade+ in pursuit of Warhammer and Chinese markets. It feels like we were just a stepping stone.

[@dawndarklight44]

It would not even be a problem if they never made one again. Disappointing yes, but the problem is the mechanics of their fantasy titles suck. /single entities, doom stacks, no projectile physics. Ect. The tactics are simply non existent now, rts to a “real tine unit tabletop.”

[@theduckthatsits]

Nothing short of saying our games aren't good right now and we're investing in new tools and a new engine could even begin to tide me over. Even then words are cheap and the results would be what matters. The fact they're talking about increasing the pace of content makes me think more crunch, more bodge fixes and more desperate manpower reassignments meaning tools will not get fixed.

[@Volound]

100% nailed it.

[@toddfromwork8931]

Good assessment. And even if they do create a good game in the future, I won't be buying it after the way they treated me, you and all of us. I'm not a number and I'm not a bot. There isn't a magical combination of words that CrapGPT can produce that will cause my algorithm to give them my money ever again. They blew it and it's not my problem.

[@Latinkon]

Amen. A brand new engine is long overdue for the franchise, preferably one that is modder friendly.

[@SGProductions87]

Bugfixes are good tho. They release incomplete buggy games and were ignoring bugs for even years on end in favour of more dlc. This new strategy makes what they have built whole.

[@enjoythestruggle]

Classic example of 'I'm sorry I got called on my bullshit. I'm sorry you got mad.' Someone ought to tell them that actions speak louder than words. Will the addicts fall for this? I suspect at least some of them will. Good thing it's their money, not mine.

[@alpharius2omegaboogaloo384]

Reminds me of Carl from Aqua Team Hunger force… “Look… I’m really, really sorry… That you were a dumb enough schmuck to buy our shitty DLC! I mean… I’m very sorry… that you COULDN’T TELL you were played like a moron!”

[@gustavchambert7072]

Andy's Take has a video up with "a total war miracle" in the thumbnail, soooooo....

[@enjoythestruggle]

Who? lol@@gustavchambert7072

[@Killer-vi4ih]

They are sorry they failed. They don't give a fuck

[@Casualfield]

Great book of grudges and his viewers are eating this shit up they will never learn and CA knows it

[@TheMissing8]

I commented on his video ( And I just want to be clear I think Nathan is probably an alright guy, but his viewers are fanboys) that people should take this with a grain of salt and within minutes somebody commented defending CA and saying I was being too harsh.

[@lazyking7444]

He is still in the creator program so...

[@valente970]

I reached the point a while ago that I don’t want Medieval 3 anymore, I don’t even trust them to do a Medieval 2 remaster right. Not unless major changes happen at that company.

[@toddfromwork8931]

I don't care how sorry they claim to be. I'm still never buying another CA game in my life. Because unlike them, I have integrity.

[@awanderer7132]

It'll be hard for me, as there wont be a game that both features Warhammer and scratches the itch Twwh3 did

[@Killer-vi4ih]

Don't pirate

[@toddfromwork8931]

I would never steal from the rich!@@Killer-vi4ih

[@tomm9963]

Its tragic how many of the consoooomers forgave over a decade of nonsense for a cheaper game and a bit of free DLC

[@Coconut-219]

Free DLC, or as it was called before the early-access scam culture; "Development"

[@tomm9963]

@@Coconut-219 Back in the day eh?

[@epulon6671]

The fact that at the end of the letter we still see the name "Rob Bartholomew" means they put absolutely no effort into restructuring and have shown that they do not have any real kind of incentive or will to change the company for the better.

[@Volound]

rob was fired months ago. the internal email from the head of the studio announcing it was leaked months ago now.

[@epulon6671]

@@Volound Good riddance. I saw your videos discussing him getting sacked, but seeing his name on this letter awoke a fear that they (CA), god forbid, rehired him again.

[@Volound]

​he could go through a redundancy consultation and get a demotion (as the people elsewhere in the company hopefully have the choice) but ive been told things that suggest that isnt happening at all@@epulon6671

[@Killer-vi4ih]

Totally a fake name

[@TheBonzobonzo]

At no point did they actual be transparent in what they had been doing and planning and own up to how they have messed up, just put it all on us saying, clearly your unhappy and for that we so so 'sorry'!

[@thinkwithurdipstick]

Couldn’t help but think of south park’s bit with the BP CEO saying “we’re sorry” when i read this. I imagine the level of sincerity was roughly the same.

[@tomasz9429]

"We're sorry, but we won't be making any improvements. STFU and buy our games, would you kindly?"

[@thatsquidwardfeel5567]

Players: lmao no CA: why are you so mean reee

[@JakeTheRipper]

Yeah they apologize by reaching into the garbage to give us more shit, this time for free. This post is absolute proof they won't/can't change as a company. It reads as we'll continue exactly as we have been with no deviation to the plot. They'll make these changes and then pump and dump a another shit game in a year or two.

[@ron4280]

Notice the "we want to expand Pharoah's Map and fsctions" They intended to take a historical setting and turn it into a Warhammer lite churning out dozens of $25 dlc's Any future historical release in the future looks gruesome because they saw that WH dlc bloat was a successful model.

[@nikolasweischner3560]

The ''breaks our hearts'' line is hilarious.

[@TheCybercoco]

Now if strategy gamers would show the same contempt for Paradox, who does even worse than CA, as they do with CA right now.

[@toddfromwork8931]

Preach

[@awanderer7132]

This

[@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD]

Besides making a shitty version of Endless Dungeon, what have they been up to?

[@supersardonic1179]

We'll see how much of this farce is genuine with how they treat the saps who bought the DLC passes for Pharoah. Can't believe they still trusted a company who has shown they're willing to drop all support on a whim.

[@ZendikarMage42750]

I'm super interested in the Warhammer games since I'm a big fantasy nerd, but I'm still rooting for CA to crash and burn after all the shit they've done. If over the next few years they happen to actually start making good games again, that might change, but I'll believe it when I see it

[@Runenschuppe]

I love the statement: "We also have more work to do on Thrones of Delay to make sure that we don't repeat our past mistakes, and to give you the amount of content that you rightly expect from us at these price points. Once we've launched our free update to Shadows of Shortchange [...]." They are literally admitting here that they had fully planned to push out the exact same crap again but are now afraid that that would kill the company, so they are asking as for an extension to finally put in the bare amount of effort to get a passing grade.

[@jonesjohnson6301]

THANK YOU! This morning while waking up I heard the news with shilltubers talking about this, and I kept wanting to hammer my head because how stupid are those guys or how stupid do they think us to be, if that's the take-away?! Them canceling the Pharaoh DLCs because there's no chance they'll make any money on them was so obvious that the people pretending to think otherwise made my head hurt.

[@evrodz6352]

I’m so bearish on this clusterfuck of a company. They sold their souls a long time ago

[@KroM234]

"I SWEAR this time will be different baby!"

[@misterpinkandyellow74]

Did they reverse the steam bans?

[@Volound]

some of them. doubt they kept good records of their devastation.

[@misterpinkandyellow74]

@@Volound so this apology is meaningless. They disrespected their consumers and didn't make amends to all of them.

[@vikingcathq]

I guess it's really tough for CA to have to refund a percentage of the $2 they made selling Pharaoh. More to the point, they are not acknowledging the deeper problems with their games, they just think 'MOAR STUFF' is the solution. I'd rather play a game that has comparatively less 'unit variety' (ugh) but has solid gameplay flow, performance, is bug free, is a challenge not a chore, etc. Something tells me they're not going to manage that. They're still hoping people will get used to the lower standards and that they can placate the masses with more shinies.

[@pointbleak-3222]

When Volound read that sentence about "heartfelt commitment to these games" for some reason the words "The Future of Total War: THREE KINGDOMS" flashed into my mind😄

[@seeinred]

There's only one rule everyone should keep in relation to any corporation. Never forget, never forgive. If they want to admit their mistakes, let the actions do the talking, like with cyberpunk2077.

[@manmallard]

"Now that we realized you don't like our bare minimum DLC and games, we'll actually give a slightly more ambitious DLC later next year when we know how little we can get away with" "Oh, we always planned on making the map expansion free, we promise, have to believe us" "We'll have more to say and show after we figure out what the new least amount of effort it will take to get you to shut up" "We apologize for the mistakes, that you think we made, but we won't bother stating directly" Notably. Rob Bartholomew is on the list of leaders names... So someone was wrong about him being fired.

[@Loalrikowki]

They're absolutely going to charge 25 for Thrones of Delay.

[@awanderer7132]

more like 28-30$, Delays means labour costs New Calender Year/Fiscal period means new inflation rates!

[@metaflight9495]

My one disagreement is that CA, like all other firms, exists to produce value for its owners. Nothing inside of a firm can redirect a firm from that in the long term, other than maybe efforts by people within those firms to keep their jobs. CA produces trash because their consumers want/tolerate trash. Only consumers no longer wanting/tolerating trash can hope to change how CA operates. Realistically the only way that consumers will stop wanting/tolerating trash in large enough numbers is if influencers convincing them to change their tastes. Even if it might be true that there's more money to be made by CA producing better games, that's a risk, especially if they need to invest time in fixing their engine instead of churning out product. Unless they know for certain that the current model won't make them the profits they're looking for and/or they are certain there's more money elsewhere, they'll never change. The smallest number of people with the lowest cost of changing their behavior in all of this are the influencers, the only cost of showing why CA's product is shit is a lack of access from CA and as far as I know its debateable how much that's worth vs. just calling them out in views.

[@Volound]

im not a capitalist. im the complete opposite. so i dont know what you mean about disagreement. CA is a case study in how profit motive leads to ruin and ive been saying it for years.

[@aaronmorano1662]

The fact that Rob B is still listed under leadership speaks volumes about this 'apology'.

[@Nightninja913]

Imagine getting hopeful about CA after this cheap ass ploy lol

[@hbfb1123]

I can feel the anxiety in the letter. Its feels like there was an angry SEGA guy with a baseball bat in his hand standing behind the poor bastard that had to write this lmao.

[@qlum]

I will add that they do a little more than the bare minimum with the money back as all they had to do legally was refund what made the more expensive editions more expensive. By lowering the price altogether, they both cover their ass and give a small gesture. It is better for them to make it a free update and hopefully sell more copies of the base game or sell max 5k copies of the dlc. Free update probably brings in more money. It would not surprise me if the update is still larger than the dlc, if they were working on multiple dlc at the same time, and know they are not going to sell the dlc in meaningful numbers anyway, better just release it and be done with it.

[@blob22201]

Yeah knocking £20 off the base price of a game and actually refunding that money into customer accounts isn't nothing.

[@alessandroiorio6248]

Facta non verba. This insincere apology is another mark of dishonor. CA needs a total shakeup, maybe from their corporate overlords doing us a good service for once.

[@palacehaunter5442]

CA sold out all!

[@WorLadCiz]

It’s actually fking embarrassing to watch this company function, sack the board and all those who are truly incompetent at CA. Thank you for reading the letter, Volound. The letter is so cringe, your services will never be forgotten.

[@jfraser1903]

its been a difficult few decades mate

[@MEATOGRE]

Oh look, more words from overly-sensitive toy makers. Imagine if they took action instead of giving a vague non-apology.

[@RomanHistoryFan476AD]

This just confirms Total War and CA ain't going to change direction, they're going on a one way trip down to sewerage-ville and never returning.

[@wag0NE]

Still not worth £30, at least they admit how terrible their product is.

[@elemenar232]

Don’t Let yourself get fooled again

[@Nasmr1]

After seeing the full thing reviewed over by you and Legend? (I refused to watch GBoG video despite him being the first on the algorithm) It's an extremely long winded and corporatised letter that essentially boils down to this; "Okay, DLC will be back to original pricing models." So nothing has changed, there is no aknowledgement of tech debt. No aknowledgement of the statification/spreadsheeting of the games. No aknowledgement of any true flaws. No, it's just more of the same "CaWnTEnT". Resulting in total war being practically a lazy live service model. Nothing more than an attempt to return to normalcy of shit DLC pumping. And the fans of this shit say "we've won!!!!". Pathetic.

[@nathanrobinson1099]

Total War historical is the step child that the new generation of Creative Assembly loathe, and would be done with tomorrow if it didn’t keep them afloat. I’d go as far to say they have purposefully sabotaged it, that’s how bad the decline has been-going with the bare bones until the wheels fall off, and no one will miss it due to bad will. Much like the Oakland Athletics ownership.

[@bumpermanthesecond615]

Everybody can make a mistake except this one

[@Lobcastcoke]

They should just scrap Pharaoh support and move on. The game at its core is broken and can’t be saved by “free dlc” or an expanded map.

[@8TimeTurner8]

CA: we confused our customers! Poor babies, we are so sorry we were so confusing. Our bad. We'll not be confusing to them anymore. So sorry

[@stalhandske9649]

They promised to be more transparent going forward. So they made their corporate speak, lies and manipulation transparent. Good on you CA!

[@facethemoosikrts6527]

You can't reason with useless people fighting for professional survival. They will hold onto power at the expense of the company as a whole.

[@antalito3047]

I mean is it the perfect apology? No. But is this a step in the right direction? I’d like to think so. As they also mention, building up the trust again will take time and effort so let us see what they do and let their actions speak. I do believe this apology is much better than what we’ve seen so far and the fact that they’re adding content to WH3 DLC and decreasing the price of Pharaoh is something we haven’t yet seen from CA so this is a huge thing. Do they do it because they have love for TW? No, they do it because they’re a company and they lost a lot of money and they want to be successful again. So let’s not fool ourselves, they’re not our friends, they’re a corporation trying to cut a profit. I just hope moving forward they will give more freedom to the dev teams instead of the big guys deciding what to make next. This way, we might actually see games that the community wants and they get released in a state they should be at. Time will tell.

[@captainnyet9855]

That post is just CA spinning the drop of all support for Pharaoh due to catastrophic sales as being the "good faith" act of giving back to the commmunity, and cancelling a failed price-hiking scheme that made sales tank as being a "price drop" that customers should be happy about.

[@maximvsdread1610]

Imagine the music Jeff Van Dyck would have created for a theme such as Pharaoh.

[@Bluepenguin28]

Well i'll be honest, i'm watching all these videos for supporting Volound's channel(because he was honest from the very beginning), i'm done with buying games that releasing a half assed base game then releasing 1231231241411 amount of dlc to make them good/decent. even tho i'm huge fan of civilization series i stopped buying it after civ 5 because those dlc counts and prices became "RIDICULOUS", i don't care if they are giving free ones time to time if a complete game become to 500$ and the value of it feels like 60$ its not for me. i didn't come to this world just to be a paypig for some soulless corporate. since they'll never stop releasing games and then add 50+ dlcs after that i'm done with CA and Firaxis , i'm sorry i can understand old Diablo 2 monetization which release the base game and release an expansion pack after 1-2 years, i swear i could accept that practise. but releasing a new faction + some (new OP) units every 3-4 months and expecting me to pay 20-35$ for them is not fair for me.

[@thatsquidwardfeel5567]

Well well well, looks like trust and goodwill are a privilege, not an entitlement. :)

[@maximvsdread1610]

A dishonorable dispray.

[@adamcarter7696]

This is no different to statements released in the past like after the rome 2 release shitstorm. Nothing changed after that with new releases so I don't expect any difference here with these lies and attempted damage reduction.

[@monkofdarktimes]

This is talk Action must be taken and seen in order to change opinion at this point. It's best to wait to see

[@maximusd26]

love how the titles and thumbnail say all about a total war ytber Andy : "wow, a new chance ??" Apollo "Meh show you mean it and resign" Legend " Didn't care for years at this point and still don't" Volound "I will tell you once again to go fk yourself"

[@valente970]

Remember how they gave us free dlc for Rome 2 after that shitshow of a release? It’s all bullshit, they haven’t one bit and I don’t trust anything that comes from them.

[@mhovar101]

I really want to be optimistic, I am hoping this will be a turn around for creative assembly, unfortunately I really doubt it.

[@MrAnihillator]

MY RORD, A GRORIOUS VICTORY WIRR SOON BE YOURS!

[@nurgleschosen8145]

Did you know that to play the entire total war warhammer experience you have to oay over 600 euros? Then if you want to play the base game? Like the entire basic experience with no dlcs across the complete game? Well spit out 180 euros. Total war warhammer 1 is 60 euros. It didnt decrease in price after the second game got released. Total war warhammer 2 is 60 euros. It didnt decrease in price after the third game. And then theres total war warhammer 3 which is, surprise, 60 euros. This is fucking insane. Now shove in "paid updates" (why bother calling them updates?) And you steadily spent hundreds of euros. But hey i pirate their games😂

[@PainfullySubjective]

0:38 "because people have trouble with this, especially the warhammer kids that don't know anything" feels pejorative but i'll allow it

[@dickinwurfer]

Finally truth, I watched some other guys video and he skipped large parts of their statement and vaguely talked about the future of total war in a weird optimistic and positive way (He is possibly a shill) largely ignoring the real issues, 3 years ago I saw him being very harsh and critical of Age of empires 4 and AOE2 DE whether it was in his review or other topics related to said games at that time he had around 100-400 subs now he has 50k funnily enough....

[@DerSteppenwolf1979]

Rob Bartholomew signs this letter. Didnt you find out he was fired?

[@Volound]

he doesnt sign anything. its a drafted press release. everything about it is designed. and yeah i leaked the email from the head of the studio announcing his decision to fire him (the primary source). you missed that one? came off the shithole subreddit with second hand accounts?

[@dracowar6]

Rob "pay us or we kill the game"/"discussing the product you purchased is a privilege, not a right" is still there. They have learned absolutely nothing. This is 110% bc SEGA has taken notice of the Steam Reviews and they are trying to cover their asses .

[@chrish1657]

Collum scrabbling to save his precious.

[@janbrandt9780]

That's some minimal effort damage control there. I just skipped throught that article and knew immediately that they aren't truly sorry. The problem still lies there. Will we get our historical TW with good mechanics that are actually working? To me it looks like very very low chance. I don't want another Empire or even Medieval TW with current state of TW engine. It must have a lot of technical debt by now. Shogun 2 had decent version of engine that could use some fixes to some bugs(i.e. artillery aiming at corner of unit).

[@urahi830]

the updates are just reshuffling shit. They are pumping out stuff 5 times as fast and it doesn't change anything. It took them 5 tries to "fix" a horde mechanic on one lord. At some point they managed to break the modfix and still leave the mechanic non functional

[@jobe5514]

We're sorry...

[@Jamaniak]

Another apology for the modern game developer wall of shame 😂

[@sovietcupcakes328]

Your videos convinced me to buy more Shogun 2 DLC instead of saving up for WH3 and a new SSD to play it because Shogun 2 to Attila and 3k load really fast on my HDD but WH literally takes 10 minutes sometimes **per** loading screen 😭

[@1buszybudy13]

If a REAL CA "sold" as poorly as Pharaoh theyre dead. Its why they threw teh cheap bad one out, to regain the lost good will for the next product. So if the next one doesnt sell CA may be finally gone

[@RunicRhino22]

If I ever find myself becoming a business teacher at Secondary school or Sixth form, I think i found the perfect case study of how NOT to run a business.

[@dalotos]

Sounds like the only thing he's really saying is they admit to being slack, but are mostly likely even slower in the future.

[@SGProductions87]

You talk about dev and other integral layoffs but don't most game producers have this model? Hire staff for a season, layoff when no longer needed to reduce renumeration costs, retain a skeleton crew for bugfixes/patching/testing, hire again for expands and new content? I have looked into becoming a dev myself and most guide vids on youtube tell you to expect to be ground into the dirt during sprints and then after release you will most likely be made redundant.

[@Norbert92]

At this point what is our end game customer wise? To have to wrangle these idiot managers (because we no longer get to talk to the devs, our feedback goes to the people who have turned the company into a clown show) into every inch of good change until we get a decent game considering there is no way they make a new game engine (so best we get is total spreadsheet war, weird projectiles, etc) abd then we still have to pay for it and feel grateful? A constant struggle to force people who dont want to make good games (not the actual devs i reiterate but the managerial class) into making money for them? What kind of customer experience is that? I say just wait for a new company formed by people who actually want to make good games to come up rather than waste our time with these people, for now i'll stick to the old games, they keep getting mods and updates that make them more worthy than their new garbage. Anyway, have a nice day everyone Btw i've been playing the Tsardoms tw mod for medieval 2 10/10 mod imo, also third age divide and conquer got a big update and shogun 2 had a darth mod for it which i was unaware of until recently, all worth checking out, let alone the tons of other awesome mods i cant play due to lack of time

[@Azhini]

Just stop buying their newer games. Frankly you've pointed out why there's little need; there's a bunch of awesome mods for the total war library. Since most of their later games are essentially mods for Shogun II the only difference is that you're paying CA for their mods.

[@wile123456]

Remember when sequels felt amazing and breathtaking? Even iterative sequels like spiderman 2 adds news things everywhere, new moves, new ways to swing, more villains bigger story etc. Total war has never had this feeling. Sequels just feel like DLC. Total war 3 was a 60 dollar expansion for 3 factions.

[@flyingfoamtv2169]

im glad he is coverijg this.

[@unowno123]

2:10 the reason why it worked with rome 2 is because rome 2 was overly ambitious but people did see a lot of innovation and cool concepts. Just all the basics were missing. Now CA just price hikes and makes products nobody asked for.

[@lexsdragon1554]

At this point I don't even know what CA can do to please you

[@Volound]

theyre a game company that hasnt made a good game in 12 years. jee i wonder

[@lexsdragon1554]

@@Volound very objective what can I say. For the last few months I thought you are being constructive. But it's pure bias by now

[@Volound]

meaningless garbage. pharaoh has 1/5th of the players of rome total war, a 20 year old game.

[@marduk1734]

I like how everyone ignores that CA was fisted by Arch like almost 5 years ago. If only we had a TW version of EFAP, so both the Shillfluencers and Sigmarxists would have been pounded immediately on sight.

[@alpharius2omegaboogaloo384]

If I’m not mistaken, I think Volund dislikes Arch. I imagine it’s due to some kind of stigma or political difference.

[@marduk1734]

@@alpharius2omegaboogaloo384 The same way Stalin disliked Bavarian gefreiter

[@gronndar]

lol @ efap

[@dragonforks93]

Yeah I don't buy it, they have done this before. Push around the fanbase until the backlash is too severe, then release free shit to calm them down. Rinse and repeat.

[@lcmiracle]

Well, they are left with nothing but Total War, so... checks out

[@rcsx839]

This message would have never been made if Hyenas was a wild success... or if it was any sort of success. Now CA are realising that we the TW fans are their true customers and they better not fk us any longer or we will go else where. Ultimate General Civil War is the first to truly start taking the TW market share and I love that for them.

[@TOKOLOSHE100]

I reckon the series is just from a different time, when gaming was a niche hobby and people with passion built games for both themselves and their player base, presented it on a CD to be played as a finished product on hardware that required serious monetary investment. For me the rot set in with Steam and Empire.

[@darkfireslide]

I think the most disturbing thing here isn't the apology itself but rather that CA fans only care about a content per dollar ratio rather than the quality of the gameplay. Fan betrayal was only ever about the WH3 DLC not being enough game, not enough "value", not anything to do with the gameplay itself

[@nrm6454]

I see you didnt address Rob signing off on this lol