FUTURE OF TOTAL WAR REVEALED - BIG CHANGES AT CA

Now this was wholly unexpected, but a BIG and welcome surprise to read! Creative Assembly just posted their best blog post ever as far as I'm aware, where Vice President at Creative Assembly Roger Collum, on behalf of the entire leadership team, lays out the current situation and state of the company and upcoming Total War DLC and expansions to current games.
The fans and players are getting genuine apologies here, promises of change, and not just promises honestly, but actual partial refunds and cost reductions of Total War Pharaoh, updates and promises of more free content for the Shadows of Change DLC for Total War Warhammer 3, news on Thrones of Decay, and even the first ever news and reveal of future Total War Pharaoh content, like an expansion to the campaign map.
More will be revealed in the future when the time is appropriate for it, but for now, this is amazing news, and even though we'll have to absolutely see whether these changes are made at the company in terms of transparency and better communication, I'm really glad this blog post finally arrived.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and remember to leave and subscribe to the channel! :)
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[@Pilps]

Basically: We lost money with Pharaoh, we’re sorry, here’s some false promises.

[@thegarbageman8713]

For real this is easy to do. Make community interested with good titles ---> Start making changes via policy or prices ---> community revolts ---> CA respond saying they are wrong or ignore them ---> further anger from community ---> CA gives and promises to do better

[@Geometrys]

for real this is easy to do. 1.Cant go back in time. Deal with what we have. 2a. CA gives promises. CA fails promises. Dont buy CA products 2b. CA Gives promises. CA fulfills promises. Buy CA products.

[@matthewcarroll2533]

Congrats, you understand post-modern marketing. You'll go far in this world with that basic, essentially mandatory, skill. Lol nah but for real, that's exactly what CA is doing and have done in the past. Empty promises until their games turn around.

[@WAAAAAAGH]

Nooo! Accept the corporate apology! What more could you want!? This is why gamers are so TOXIC and UNGRATEFUL! Just eat the slop already!

[@The13thRonin]

*Completely anti-consumer company does the South Park "We're sorry" skit, but for real.* Andy's Take: "Well... I guess that fixes everything!" What is wrong with you? Why are you like this?

[@Molonlabe07]

Honestly it's a decent first step but I want a commitment that their next game will be a return to form, give us Empire 2, medieval 3 or something with actual historical value.

[@AndysTake]

Yeah like I have no idea about the next game. We can only hope they take player feedback more into consideration and that what they've said here is followed through on

[@HungTran-cv9jt]

Agreed. This channel's community forgives and forgets too quickly. This is not the first time CA has said pretty words and apologize. I'd wait until they back it up with real actions

[@Tinylittledansonman]

Yeah WH seems to have split the community. Ive noticed WH players tend to not care about historical titles and encourage CA to basically just drop them and become a solely WH company. I think this is how we got stuff like Pharaoh. They're thinking by throwing in some more cheesey mechanics like heros and powers they can get both crowds in one game.

[@HungTran-cv9jt]

@@Tinylittledansonman I completely agree that the WH crowd and the historical crowd are different types of fans and prefer differenet types of games. Mixing the products the appease both is the wrong play.

[@meilinchan7314]

Doubt it. CA is owned by SEGA, and SEGA has a very pessimistic view of CA's future.

[@marekkos3513]

they already had 12 years after Rome 2 , and they were continue to make total war even worse every year.The golden age of total war has ended with Shogun 2 total war.Thank you and have a nice day

[@NinjaBananes]

Attila ❤

[@alexeyman7301]

At least Empire was pretty good

[@Motard.Actual]

Honestly I would say warhammer 2 was.

[@seebarry4068]

Shogun 2 was their finest hour, followed by napoleon and atilla, in an order of your choosing. Imo, which is not humble.

[@marekkos3513]

@@seebarry4068 Yest you are right.Shogun 2 is a masterpiece.Now they have different people in the company , and they have no idea what total war game should look like.

[@doogz5199]

i’ve been a total war fan since original rome when was just entering middle school. i remain a gamer but feel broken seeing what made my childhood and adolescence become objectively worse for others to get into. I want total war to thrive, it garnered my interest in history much more the school ever did along with critical thinking and desire to learn about other cultures

[@blakefitzgerald1170]

I remember a friend at uni showing me Rome tw for the first time we played a campaign a turn each, beautiful memories. Honestly I feel the whole franchise never again reached the heights of Rome TW back in it's day.

[@ItsDaKoolaidDude]

That statement of "breaking our hearts" is emotional blackmailing. If there was sincerity, they wouldn't have tried anything like that. And then moving on to "We make games to bring you joy, etc" that's a blatant lie. They are a _company._ A company makes products to make money, and its the products themselves that are to either bring joy or inspire, etc. To put it bluntly, this is the same type of energy as that South Park "We're sorry" clip, the only way it truly matters is when CA demonstrates and does next. Its too easy to say "sorry" in any capacity, and its been used enough by companies, spokespersons and streamer/youtubers enough to render that word meaningless.

[@ydem1se]

They’re not sorry for what they did, they’re sorry they got caught. It’s like the coffee shop giving you instant coffee instead of the mocha you bought, and when you say “I saw you put instant coffee in my cup” they’ll say “Oh sorry, we’ll pay you back the difference between the instant coffee and the mocha”. And people are commending them for giving back the money.

[@DerGeraet205]

The partial refunds sound like a huge decision, but with Pharaoh's sales numbers, it was probably decided they have the spare change😂 Not to take anything away from them, it's nice and very encouraging to see this, let's hope they keep it up

[@S4ltyTar0]

Honestly, they will probably make more money off people buying it with the price decrease than they lose with the partial refunds all while looking generous so it's a net win for CA. At the same time, in an age where game companies are trying to clutch every nickel and dime they can this is such a refreshing move I don't want to be cynical about it.

[@Lucpol1986]

Probably met their financial targets from all the milking…

[@Smenkhaare]

It is a win win for CA and Steam in that the money will go to the wallet; meaning that players who overpaid will purchase other content. Really sweet deal for Steam. Also CA gains a lot of bonus points for this move. We need increase mod support and I was not going to purchase Pharaoh until the price drop. I anticipated this and said I would only purchase two to three months after release when it is $40 or so. Here we have it at $40 a high end price for a DLC. Pharaoh should be combined with Troy and some point... along with increasing factions. Keep up trying to do better CA. It will only result in better games and more money for CA/Sega. A remaster for Medieval II and/or Empire would be nice for Feral to sink its teeth into as well.

[@DarthTrytan]

Guys, someone go online and tell them to hire the DEI team to make their games for them

[@jaco6971]

> Creative Assembly: "If you don't buy our DLC, we'll stop existing cause there's no money in the bank" > Also CA: "Here, take these refunds. Next DLC will be free as well." Words are just words. Dozens of employees have been the target of redundancy packages. Their spaghetti code is the result of accumulated tech debt. As a company that is facing so many issues right now, as a result of a decade of squandering their long term potential at the benefit of short term gains, for them to recover from all of this they have to change on a fundamental level. They need to rebuild their engine from the ground up for next games, this is a MUST. How are they going to do that with much of the talent now gone in wake of the layoffs? Trust in the company has disintegrated, they need a complete shift not just in tone toward the public, but in their own style of character and leadership. You can only go so far with putting on a fake smile, if people catch on, you can't fool anyone anymore, and people distrust when you make efforts to change. You need to work on your inner problems and character and that goes down to the individual people at the helm of the company. Can these people at the top change their personality and goals and look on life/business? And even if they do, it takes TIME for trust to come back, which leads me to the next problem: The money problem. To fix all of the issues, and start rebuilding their brand, they need time and resources. They need to dial in on the long term goal here. How is SEGA going to give them the time and money they need to work on future proofing themselves? There's no way. They just flushed tens of millions down the toilet with Hyenas. I think they they've worked themselves into a corner that they can't get out of in a healthy way. In other words; I don't believe that they will be given the time and resources to TRULY change, and thus leadership can't change because SEGA will be breathing down their necks, whispering "So how's things looking? Are we on track for our quarter financial goals yet?". This Public letter is, in my eyes, proof of the desparation within the company. A cry for goodwill, it's PR. If my assessment is right, then this company is done for. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but again; I doubt those desperate measures will be taken because of the huge financial investment with unknown payoff. In my eyes it's less risky than staking the future of your company in making a game in a genre that your company has no experience in. But I doubt SEGA sees it that way as well. It's nice that they acknowledge mistakes were made (without going into detail WHAT mistakes were made in their eyes?), it's nice that they acknowledge that this is just a current pledge but that the future will show the results.

[@adept7497]

Dude, whatever. Words are just words. Actions are what matters. Actions in form of a good game.

[@damianwozniak3798]

If u to young, and dont know game like CENTURION: Defender of Rome (1990) AMIGA. U should play and say what was change in Total War series about 30 years. 🤣Centurion have all what Total War have + gladiator fight's, chariots races, and fleet battles. And it was on 2 FDD - 1,5 Megabyte od data. 😆Well maybe there was no champions. All the rest is the same for 30 years. 😂

[@olegchernyak1741]

​@@damianwozniak3798 damn, somebody remembers that brilliant precursor to TW. I sank so much hours as a kid into it.

[@quimble2177]

The fairly quick things they can do are nice, but I’ve been burnt too much to trust them without something major. Also, 100% this isn’t just CA growing an understanding of “we shagged it”, SEGA absolutely stepped in and told them to behave, or end up like Relic did post DoW3, aka “fuck you, you’re a side company that helps others now, until we can trust you”

[@AndysTake]

Whatever made them do this, it’s a positive change - we’ll have to see whether they follow through, but their entire reputation and future is relying on this, and I’m certain they know that

[@quimble2177]

@@AndysTake I absolutely hope so. I adore total war (some of them) and I wanna see us go back to the stuff like Smol details being a must have like old TW, or actual naval battles again. There’s obviously more (imo) basic stuff I’d want like actual population that is effected by your actions, not just a green bar that goes up but those two at least are a must for me

[@AndysTake]

@@quimble2177 me too, man, me too!

[@khairinoa]

It's a well written note. But I wouldn't hold my breath until those changes have actually been implemented. So we shall see if they'll be true to their words

[@MrBell-iq3sm]

Some chances are really not as great as Andy here tries to claim. Selling a 'game' that is worth $30 at best for $40 instead of $60 is not great. It's not even good.

[@hex_1733]

@@MrBell-iq3sm $40 is the price of previous smaller TW games, though. I think only Napoleon was cheaper.

[@AndysTake]

@@MrBell-iq3sm they’ve refunded people, massively decreased the price of their latest game (which will probably be on sale again soon), and will offer free content of what was going to be paid. That’s big, and hopefully more’s to come

[@Cameronnoitinly232]

@@MrBell-iq3smpeace and love man but oh my lord some of you will just never be satisfied. Lowering the price of the game and handing out partial refunds is a big move for a company. Especially considering not many people even bought the game so they couldn’t have made that much money in the first place. Obviously we still gotta wait and see but this is a step in the right direction for the company that should be acknowledged.

[@MrBell-iq3sm]

@@Cameronnoitinly232 And some of you are just mindless consumers, who immediately forgive and forget over ten years of costumer mistreatment after hearing a generic corporate apology and being given some peanuts. A lower price and some refunds for a failed game, which barely sold is not a big deal. It's the bare minimum.

[@Sturmavk]

Long time TW player here. I fell off the CA train with Empire's disastrous release and then Napoleon being released shortly after with Empire still being a broken POS. Since then I wait about 2 years after a new TW game is out to even try it. I'm just getting into Warhammer 2 TW and loving it. All bugs sorted. I'm not losing weeks of time put into a campaign getting corrupted with a new update. The mods I like aren't getting wiped/corrupted with updates. The game and all DLC were super cheap during one of those Blood for the Blood God events. I did the same with Rome 2, waited a couple years and picked it up cheap. I think this is the way to go with TW games.

[@Henners1991]

Agreed - that's the first big disappointment with CA I remember. I was so angry when they put out Napoleon since, at the time, it felt like they were taking the fixes they should have been applying to Empire and just releasing what should have been an expansion pack as a standalone paid product. It actually led to me refusing to buy Napoleon for years after that. Empire was endearing for its ambition and scope but, yeah, it was just left unfinished. And then we had Rome 2... which I was stupid enough to preorder. I doubt much more needs saying!

[@Optimusprime240]

*Me who plays the hell out of Empire since it first released...* Yeah...uhh...such a letdown...!

[@AndysTake]

That’s a good approach, good on you for having patience!

[@NakedOwl501]

​@@Optimusprime240 I still play Empire because frankly it's the only game like it and I like to RP. Doesn't mean I appreciate everything from the minor graphical bugs like a giant orange square on your minister screen or the major gameplay ones such as AI bum-rushing your artillery that is behind 2 lines of infantry. It's not really a good game, just the only one you have.

[@thibs2837]

True strategy enjoyer here 😂💪🏻

[@Chuck12312]

I appreciate the refund for Pharaoh, I don't know how emotional CA is when it says "it breaks our hearts" and "make games to bring joy" when the latter well some games have been abandoned. Otherwise if we give them time, they will have things sorted out and I can't wait to see the expansion of Pharaoh, probabably a combined Troy and Pharaoh map

[@AndysTake]

I feel the same way. All we can do is wait and see, but language is important, and I think that refund for pharaoh, plus free content for shadows of change and pharaoh’s first DLC are major moves we can actually measure - it’s proof. But we’ll definitely have to see if this actually changes the content, the communication day to day etc, which I hope we’ll feel early in the new year!

[@damianwozniak3798]

If u to young, and dont know game like CENTURION: Defender of Rome (1990) AMIGA. U should play and say what was change in Total War series about 30 years. 🤣Centurion have all what Total War have + gladiator fight's, chariots races, and fleet battles. And it was on 2 FDD - 1,5 Megabyte od data. 😆Well maybe there was no champions. All the rest is the same for 30 years. 😂

[@raulnavarrete963]

Oh honestly I’m not a big fan of these companies, but the fact they are partially refunding, shows genuine sorrow and action to fix this. What an awesome move from CA. I didn’t even buy pharaoh, but wow, good on them for doing that

[@bumchod2511]

You're right thinking those more emotional states are sus. They are a business, and they're only saying this stuff because their business plans didn't succeed. It comes from the need for profit, not from a heartfelt place. And that's OK, its the way of the world. The only thing we can take to heart are the actual moves they make, like the partial refund and upcoming 'freebies'. That stuff is good. Otherwise the apology is basically that south park bit where the BP exec is rubbing his nipples saying 'we're sorry' after a big oil spill lol

[@Smenkhaare]

Yes it should be a no brainer to combine Pharaoh with Troy faction and map wise. In one Troy DLC, you had the opportunity to play as Pharaoh Memnon as a horde character. This was nice.

[@jaku9730]

This feels like Hyenas was supposed to take over the studio and since it was shut down by Sega they now have to care about Total war again.

[@1992zorro]

We have a saying here, a few sunshines doesn't it make a summer yet

[@AndysTake]

That’s a good saying!

[@spacebunny4335]

I hope that these changes go well and help revive the series.

[@AndysTake]

Same 💪

[@damianwozniak3798]

🤣If u to young, and dont know game like CENTURION: Defender of Rome (1990) AMIGA. U should play and say what was change in Total War series about 30 years. 🤣Centurion have all what Total War have + gladiator fight's, chariots races, and fleet battles. And it was on 2 FDD - 1,5 Megabyte od data. 😆Well maybe there was no champions. All the rest is the same for 30 years. 😂

[@rogergraf1634]

Tbh, the Series was never "dead".Yeah Pharaoh was a massive flop, thats true. But the older Titles and Warhammer had good Numbers, for their age and Engine. ;) But yeah you're completely right about one point. This Text gives us Hope. This text, if they make it so, will bring back a lot of those who part Time abandoned the Game. I know it from myself there are Days or even weeks, where my Mood swings back to older Games like Spellforce or Elex II. But this doesn't mean we delete TW from our hard drives. And lets be honest.... Total War is Warp Stone, and we are the Skaven.

[@ProkopivIgor]

Is now the right time to petition for a DLC to fix Attila performance? I'll pay DLC money for it

[@AndysTake]

I'm always out here pitching Attila fixes, man :'(

[@gapexx]

Unless they come out with a pipeline of a historical title with bulletin points of the engine behind it, I call this courtesy BS.

[@Doc_Tar]

Nice, but action speaks louder than words from an executive VP.

[@AndysTake]

Indeed, luckily they’ve done some actions too like refunding players and lowering the price, but promise free updates that were gonna be paid. But we’ll indeed see what happens next year :)

[@Henners1991]

I've read the update and to be honest, while it's a "good step," I'm not all that impressed. Nobody asked for Pharoah. It was obvious from the beginning that it was a minor title that was probably intended as a Total War saga that got forced up to the front as a "mainline historical" title. I am sure the team worked hard on it, but I don't know a soul that was or is actually excited about that game, so commitments to keep it updated don't really matter. Likewise I can't say i give a flying toss about that Warhammer DLC since I didn't buy it, figuring it was too overpriced. I'd have liked some word about how they're moving forward with the franchise; are they working on a new engine? Is there going to be a restructuring that will see the marketing team lose their influence at the top of the company? Is there going to be a *genuine* mainline historical title in the works ala Medieval 3 or Empire 2? That's what matter to me at least - I wouldn't really care if they threw Pharoah in the bin. Nice of them to partially refund it, but I assume only the real diehard CA fanboys actually preordered or bought the game - especially at that original price point. I dismissed it as soon as it was announced.

[@Exydos1]

I don't i believe it until i see it in the games.

[@bilbilly625]

The real question one must always ask themselves about total war (especially the older titles like MTW or NTW or ETW) is why are the MODS always better and more in-depth then the main game? Why does CA not just make their game amazing from the start.

[@itsdabman1386]

I think the number one thing for me personally that they could do to show that they want to do what’s right is fix Attila’s optimization. It is easily one of the best total wars games in my opinion and my personal favorite plus the mods for that game are so good and they just get held back by the poor optimization. It’s the only real downfall of the game. I guess this is just me wishing for years now that the optimization would actually be good for my favorite total war probably not what most people want to see them work on.

[@NinjaBananes]

It is the best TW❤

[@maunz5791]

That's a nice move of CA, I hope they really get back on track! I'd been even happier with an announcement for a remaster of empire or medieval 2 instead of pharao and Warhammer stuff, but that's just me...

[@AndysTake]

It’s not just you, man, I’m right there with ya ;)

[@pizzaman6784]

I know, as I read the announcement I was like “…but IDGAF about either of these games.” It’s been so long since they had a game in active development that I actually do care about.

[@AndysTake]

@@pizzaman6784 Soon(TM) my friend (hopefully)

[@San_Vito]

@@AndysTake If CA will work hard on making Pharaoh better AND they'll keep working on Warhammer.... how much developers do you think they'll have available for another big game? Don't expect absolutely anything like that soon.

[@Dav4hrww111]

Yes, medieval 3 would be awesome too

[@joshpeck9266]

An apology is a classic organizational development step if your reputation is in taters but that doesn’t mean they are serious

[@cigercihakan5558]

Well, at least it's a step on the right path

[@MrBell-iq3sm]

One step on a road many leagues long. Let's see if they make a second or third step as well.

[@armouredcenturion2015]

What is a real rubbing of salt in the wound is the layoffs CA did this year, and then not even a month after these layoffs they posted some new job opportunities on sites like LinkedIn where I follow them on, it must be heartbreaking for a dev to work so hard on a project like hyenas only to see it get cancelled and all that money and marketing wasted but I hope they will at least learn from these mistakes in the future as a silver lining

[@Kickpanda132]

Sh1tzzard was apologizing too, many times. They started to fixing D4 but look at their shop prices or just recently announced 1st DLC price.I would say that this apologies is bulls%%t. Remember, all big corpo companies needs your money. So they wants to calm down players for now. Like Bliizard did.

[@orclover2353]

The common conspiracy is that CA had LONG plotted to release Troy and Pharaoh on separate platforms, years apart and try to milk as much out of them as separate games. Then release a dlc map that unites the two games but forces players to buy the base again to either play on steam or buy pharaoh on epic games. The collapse of popularity means Pharaoh might be worth $5 by the time they release a unifying patch.

[@SmokeDog1871]

Talk is cheap, much harder to make real changes

[@johngialousis3041]

Wow, it’s amazing that a letter washes away a decade of screwing people over. This video is a great example of why the developers are so clueless.

[@historyismetal2187]

I'll buy pharoah if they seem to truly commit to this new approach

[@zadumanzx]

abused housewife syndrome ... literally 10 years of BS, but yes forgive those mtfs. the return of that pocket change of 45k sales of pharaoh is like nothing. a week ago their were banning people on their forums for opinions! but yes keep sending them money that will work

[@smokinfree5555]

Hi Andy, once again ty for bringing us all the up to date info, Came as a very pleasant surprise. One thing that springs to mind though is that we know the developers appear to have been struggling lately to bring us what we would consider decent content, possibly because some of the "Old Guard" have moved on & newbies have come in to replace them. Whatever the reasons I'm sure the blog is not just going to "throw a switch" & all concerened will suddenly begin to find things a lot easier & address most of the issues that need to be corrected. Miracles don't happen overnight. However this is certainly a step in the right direction, & they have to start somewhere after all. So I think we can all take something positive from this & look forward to a better & brighter future playing the Total War games we have come to know & love (Hopefully).

[@AndysTake]

I agree, my friend! We’ll have to see the change before fully believing it, but I think this type of messaging is important and a big change compared to what we got a few months ago!

[@smokinfree5555]

@@AndysTake exactly, Guess we'll have to see what 2024 brings now then :)

[@rafale1981]

Not to spoil your enthusiasm, but didn’t they recently downsize massively? Now they offer massive monetary gifts to the community (good for us, i agree) + free content. Now where does that stuff come from? A downsized workforce. Any word on whether leadership and shareholders share in that misery? Or does this mean even more hardship, exploitation and crunch-time for the ppl on the ground while management gets their cushy bonuses?

[@Raider1377]

I look at it differently. I feel they cancelled the Extended and Deluxe Editions because they aren't planning on doing all of those planned DLCs that they promised. I think they will do the free update and see how that goes, and perhaps release one DLC that was already in the works. I think the life cycle of Pharaoh will be cut short as the game has been a failure. Do you really think they will pump more money into a failure or cut their losses. Remember Three Kingdoms??

[@AndysTake]

I don’t know how much money they will pump into it - but if you’re not interested in it, why bother? Free content is coming, we’ll see if it’s any good and if the player base responds, and I think they’ll go from there. While I don’t love pharaoh, I think it’s only a positive thing that it will indeed be expanded upon somewhat - plus players have been refunded large portions of their purchase, and so if they cut it after next year’s updates… I’m certainly not gonna cry about it. Bigger and better things as they say, at least that’s my hope

[@damianwozniak3798]

If u to young, and dont know game like CENTURION: Defender of Rome (1990) AMIGA. U should play and say what was change in Total War series about 30 years. 🤣Centurion have all what Total War have + gladiator fight's, chariots races, and fleet battles. And it was on 2 FDD - 1,5 Megabyte od data. 😆Well maybe there was no champions. All the rest is the same for 30 years. 😂

[@Raider1377]

@@damianwozniak3798 Of course I had that game. It had really great music too for a Sega Genesis game.

[@damianwozniak3798]

@@Raider1377 Then we can say game is in development for 30 years almost and still far from perfect. 🤣 Even UFO:Enemy Unknown from 90's was better then new X-COM's something broke in america or rathere US.

[@Raider1377]

@@damianwozniak3798 X-Com Apocalypse takes the cake for me. The first pc game I ever purchased and was blown away. I still own it on Steam to this day.

[@gavinsepicgaming9835]

RARE HUGE CA W!!!!

[@MrDoubleblades]

The best fix would be for them to release their iron grip control on what buildings can be built in which cities.

[@HistoryExplainedPoorly]

We can only hope that the complete and utter failure that was Hyenas has caused enough shakeups at the leadership level to institute real change at CA. I don't envy their position but its one they put themselves into.

[@AndysTake]

Indeed!

[@atomicLord97]

I'll be honest, I've not played warhammer 3 in a long time. I'm just not good enough to play it, its very much a "One fuck up and your done" kinda game early on. more so than most others. WH3 totalwar is just too much for a dude like me that mains historical total wars on normal/hard or very hard when I've mastered a faction and really want a challenge. Those changes to pharaoh however catch my attention because despite the negative feed back I love the economy system and legitimately have been having loads of fun with it.

[@MrShipBuff]

I'm so hopeful about this message, while yes, we can't hold our breath fully just yet, but I'm really hopeful due to this message sounding very genuine.

[@AndysTake]

Me too :)

[@ImKillingTime]

Nothing seems genuine about it. It looks like they are going to abandon Pharaoh, and they are preemptively "refunding" a portion of the price because they already know it will never be fully fixed/completed/finished.

[@MrShipBuff]

@@ImKillingTime I mean, Pharaoh was a lost cause right as it was released, and it was probably going to be abandoned whether or not that message was made, and at least refunding people who bought it is a step in the right direction. I guess we'll have to roll with the punches.

[@alexshaw4182]

Special shout out to Sotek who stayed classy through this rather than getting cheap views and likes.

[@COMMANDandConquer199]

I'm believe it when I see it. This is a bunch of nice words, but I have 0% faith that it will result in a proper quality historical Total War game with no bullshit fantasy mechanics.

[@zackthejuggalo9358]

A fire has been lit under their asses thanks to that new revolutionary war game and I totally forgot about manor lords a much smaller scale but way more in depth I feel

[@M16Joe]

Creative assembly has burned my trust and wont get another dime until they prove they listen to fans who have been with them since the original rome

[@vortigernsaga]

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. What did they even say? "Oh, we are sorry, get a few trinkets now, shut up, and we will continue to do the same shit we've been doing the past 15 years".

[@vinniciuselion4544]

I don't believe in words, I believe in ACTION. If CA don't do anything better, they can put theses excuses in their own asses.

[@johnpijano4786]

Andy cmon. Stop making these overly optimistic thumbnails and learn to have the guts to say negative things to a company.

[@MrBell-iq3sm]

That's one of the reasons why CA could get away with a decade's worth of shameless actions. This blog post was barely the minimum, and nothing fundamental was announced. A bit of reshuffling in the management department and lowering the price of an overpriced product, that remains overpriced, is not an excuse or compensation. It's an excuse for an excuse.

[@DmT922ha]

Volound exposed him as one of the content creators that take money from CA so...

[@Henners1991]

I figure that these small-yet-up-and-coming KZbinrs can't stomach the possibility of getting blacklisted by falling onto a company's naughty list; so he's gotta shill. Still - it got us to click on the video eh?

[@KingofDrama1]

I don’t understand why ca just doesn’t remake their Rome, shogun, empire, medieval series I still find these games to be the best

[@MedjayofFaiyum]

Thank you for the link and shout out Andy! Much appreciated! The only thing I need from this game is this: Mesopotamia and Greece. If we just get Mesopotamia, I'm all happy. I will finally have the Bronze Age game I've dreamed for years.

[@jereboy2005]

This was a good change of face for them. I was not expecting basically any of it. I do still hold reservations until we actually see these changes and see what they implement. They have promised more clear communication in the past many times and everytime never living up to that. I am surprised they issued a refund really. But I'm probably more surprised they actually issued out an apology that doesn't feel as PR speak as they normally do. But the move with Pharaoh's pricing was a clear sign of them actually doing something. They have a follow up blogpost specifically about Pharaoh as well and they mention in there bringing in families and mortality into the factions as well as map expansion with new cultures and factions. That plus the free update and refund is making me finally consider getting Pharaoh. I can't believe this is the same CA that I've known for years, especially the CA of 2023 really. Still got a ways to go to actually build up all the goodwill, but this is a great first step.

[@MrShaggy789]

I welcome the thoughtful, sincere apology from Roger Collum. It sounds like CA is taking on board the recent community criticism they deserved. Hopefully, CA can become stronger than ever and provide strategy games the community is interested in. Fingers crossed.

[@frantisekcenek1199]

I have a problem with Shogun 2. I have tried to install a mod and since then it will remain on a black screen and cannot be shut down. Ihave tried to reinstall multiple times even deleting all files

[@jamesbartlettgaming1766]

what is the name of the music at the end of the video?

[@brenokrug7775]

I've never seen a game developer refund money like that. That's huge

[@brenokrug7775]

Just wishlisted the game to give CA a vote of confidence on this

[@AndysTake]

It's indeed a major move I never saw coming :)

[@ImKillingTime]

It's just too bad they don't refund all of their other incomplete games. Hell, Three Kingdoms doesn't even have a playable scenario in which there are *Three Kingdoms*

[@brenokrug7775]

@@ImKillingTime yeah that sucks. Last TW game I bought was Attila, and that was on a sale (thougth it was too similar to Rome II to bother). Recently I've been playing so much Shogun 2 it's bad for me lmao

[@user-nr6qt3zo3v]

They saving a fortune not making extra DLC

[@toupatoupapa]

I wouldn't trust any of them greedy company leaders when telling that they are sorry and that they understand. For years they were offering overpriced products while gradually lowering the quality and now they "understand" their fault just like that? They know exactly what they were doing and thought they could get away with that a bit longer each time. I think its a matter of time to let down the community once more. Do not anticipate a good game coming from that leadership. Just the same new arcady gameplay and the cartoonish aesthetics.

[@FasterthanLight11]

CA needs to spend a year or 2 to settle their development debt. So many teams working on so many versions of the game and using their own homebrewed bandaids and not talking to each other has cause an internal rot. They need to bring core programmers together and unify and fix and iterate on their engine and systems, Then use that engine for the future games of whatever genre, IP or historical period.

[@marekkos3513]

Dont ever expect a new Total War games , as good as in the past after Rome 2 total war.They have different people working on it , and all passions is gone.

[@user-vr8qd4hk6y]

Really nice message. As for Pharaoh - I might be very interested if it become a more general bronze age game. I'm sure most people underestimate warfare of this time, seeing it as something just primitive in comparison with later eras. While in fact it was already whole complex system. Plus unique, when chariots were very important, but you already could see early forms of cavalry and also elephants. Heavy infantry and tight formations also existed, don't think that soldiers on foot were only mob with cheap weaponry. Besides Medieval and Rome times, Bronze Age is really another distinct, interesting era. It's more problematic how long it lasted and when interesting faction appeared. I dunno how Pharaoh looks like and if there is a room to make proper Bronze Age game though.

[@couchpotatoe91]

Well,it was simpler compared to later times and at least in that area, you didn't have battle elephants, maybe in India. That said they could do and improve so much even with simpler battles. I'm not even talking about AI since that seems to be an engine thing, but how about instead of copy-pasting the same units with different textures you experiment for once and see how it works? Like make the technologies you create affect units directly. No stupid "+x dmg", change their weapons! Give them bronze spears instead of copper ones, give them a better kopesh, research the first instances of mass-produced armor so now your infantry on the battlefield looks better. Basically make it so that you can look at a unit on the battlefield and see all the technologies so. researched, be it player or enemy. They don't have to be much, maybe you build up to these technologies and then at certain milestones you have physical appearance changes. Let the player not recruit "elite troops", but have it so they can only obtain those by having regular troops get experience and then upgrade them. Make it so the player has to balance their army in that they have to take into account for farming seasons and building pyramids, you can't just have a standing army 24/7. Make it so when the army disbands, they receivea certain exp lvl based on how much exp they gained as well as your training technology and let them raise again next year. Only let those soldiers that gained a certain amount of experience "upgrade" at the end of each year when dismissing the rest of the farmers, those guys then are your standing army and bodyguards that are expensive, but reliable and tough. This "standing army" would be few, customizable units. Like they have an own kill count of how many enemies they've slain, can get nicknames and some traits if they e.g. fought for a long time during exhaustion or killed a lot of troops in a battle or fought chariots and won. Stuff like that. Instead we just get the same shitty reskins every year with more and more dumbed down mechanics for a higher price.

[@slus91]

Bring me freaking medieval 3 I've been waiting more than 15 years

[@trevorseidel4536]

As much as I want a Medievil 3, I want them to show me first that they can make the game as good as it should be. Not dumbed down & arcadey like Pharaoh. It needs to be worthy of the next iteration of the Medievil TW franchise.

[@DrenaiSaga]

I look forward to the day that I can once again eagerly await a Total War game, that feeling has not been there since Atilla.

[@ABCshake]

Finally! I'm looking foreword to the free expansion of the Campaign map in Pharoah. I'm putting the game back in my wishlist.

[@danielducken2843]

Did they say anything about a new engine?

[@goodmoney2998]

AND NO MORE ARCADEY TOWERS AND LADDERS, WE WANT REALISM

[@Centurion1993]

I'm happy with this message however I just really want blood DLC for PHARAOH I cant play current total wars without it anymore :D

[@AndysTake]

Haha! Imagine if it will be free :O

[@pizzaman6784]

Hearing the amazing Crusader Kings music while hearing about the terrible Total War series is kinda ironic. Paradox really needs to swoop in and cuck CA out of their whole playerbase by making a historical game with RTS battles; I’m all for it at this point.

[@HansWurst1569]

You're very positive. I'll first see before I believe. That 'free update' sounds like a bunch of bs to me.

[@luigisaguier8336]

If they are truly sorry the the responsible ones MUST step down! At least the Bartholomew guy who has proven to being a complete clown. If anything I've heard that it is the "good" devs part of the leadership behind Shogun 2 are the ones leaving... which is just more scary than anything I've seen before. This "apology" so far just proves that they finally hired someone competent to manage their communications and not that they are truly changing anything

[@starvation2907]

In the video you can see they mispelled "Pharaoh" with "Pharoah" 4 times in the letter, it's fixed on the website now but still...

[@fenrir7878]

I will hold off on judgement until I see the results. They should not abandon historical titles because that's what made them. While my wildest dream of Medieval 2 remastered or, dare I hope, Medieval 3, are just that, a true Bronze Age Total War complete with Myceneans, Elamites, Akkadians, Uratu, Mitani, and most critical of all Assyrians would go a LOOONG way to improving the title. CA has to go through it's own "Bronze Age collapse" to revamp the historical series. So far Pharaoh shows promise overall, but it's ambitions seem to limited for the grand scale of total war games. Hope they learn their lesson and pay more attention to their fans and not some VC vulture capitalists that want a big cash flow with stock options.

[@mattswailes5456]

When do you ever get the devs apologising to the community in this way? And they actually refunded people that bought pharaoh on release, give them a chance I’m still hopeful

[@jorgedeanoperez2997]

To quote Gandalf, "Hope is kindled".

[@peterk2735]

I’ve always been a TW fan, back since the first Medieval where you could spend 30+ turns waiting on a building to finish 😅 Then I played Rome for ages and I’ll never forget when Med 2 came out, it felt like the fucking future. To this day, it remains the most compelling TW experience despite the flaws…I doubt CA can ever pull off something like that again 😢

[@wyw201]

TW would probably remake Medieval 2

[@bendeguzvarga816]

To be honest I cannot be excited about Pharaoh. I just feel every hour what they put into improving Pharaoh is just delaying a medieval 3 or a medieval 2 remastered or a new actual historic title. I want a historic title, with new battle animations etc..

[@jurassictyrantkingYT]

Seeing is believing, however I think it could be because now they have a new competitor for the total war audience attention, *Manor Lords,* I don't know it just looks like they realize what they did wrong and it took another Studio to show them the error of their ways. Hearing fans calling Manor Lords as the total war killer must have frightened the leadership at creative assembly hence why they have to do the changes so they won't lose that audience.

[@Smenkhaare]

Also the Ultimate General/Admiral series from the old CA modder and his team Darth Mod. He moded CA games up to Shogun I

[@Tinylittledansonman]

The only way CA can prove they changed to me is to actually drop a historical and large scale dynamic campaign like they used to. The passion is clearly gone and they clearly just chase profits at this point. And I get it, people love WH, but WH is barely Total War. I havent bought a TW game since Atilla and I dont intend on buying one till they drop M3 or something similar.

[@huantruonginh2946]

Give unlimited modding capabilities to Atilla!

[@SupremeNoob3231]

One of the best things about paradox is their dev diaries. Glad to see we will have something (even if much smaller) from the devs here too

[@IronDragon-2143]

If there is a Medieval 3, I really hope that the Scots are historically accurate. Chainmail and Gambesons instead of Kilts and Warpaint. The way Medieval Scotland actually looked. That would be a huge step for me when it comes to historical games.

[@pepepote4268]

Good news, but on the other hand, I think it's over buying games like Medieval, Rome, etc. Now the countries involved will be sold to us little by little along with paid DLC and a large "free" campaign with some "free" DLC, more attempts to tease us

[@Esoterrible]

What I want them to do is build a single engine that all the games can use and build a full game game that includes the world and not laser focusing on a single region.

[@britishjohn04]

The best model to follow is Ed Beach's team at Civ 6 who are excellent at transparency and giving information about development.

[@Lucpol1986]

Have they finally realised that players can make or break a gaming company? Doubtful, but only time will tell…

[@cyllananassan9159]

Lets just pretend you and many others havent been promoting the same CA for more than 5 years

[@adrianrafaelmagana804]

This was great, I actually went ahead and bought Pharaoh today because of this. That being said, they didn't have a slow and steady approach...they were cranking shitty games out and expecting us to buy them regardless, if anything they do need a slow steady approach...to finally get back to quality

[@AndysTake]

I think they're talking about communication and updates for the community haha

[@ImKillingTime]

Why did you buy, in your words, a "shitty game" that was "cranked out"?

[@Mytrix0]

CA's words mean little. Take action and show us, then we'll talk.

[@DensApri]

First step CA should take, would be to learn to write PHARAOH right. Couldn't believe my eyes 😂

[@KootFloris]

what total war needs is an overhaul of their game systems. Battles with scouts, smaller hills, fights over houses, AI generals with different temperament and much more. Price politics is management panicking. They should be investing is new new better engine.

[@chasingthefish9042]

They havent changed and they won't. The thought process of the developer isnt going to change. They think they are better then the community. That will continue, they'll just be quiet about it. After the mayhem of the steam forums and review bombs we know how they feel and what their priorities are. They feel like we shouldnt have a say in what we want sold to us. Oh and you will pay our dlcs even if they are way overpriced, you dirty poors.

[@tombenjamin9924]

With the Warhammer games all having the ability to link up the seperate maps into a mega map, are they thinking of doing the same with Pharaoh and Troy - both set at very similar times in history 1200BC-1150BC.

[@RicheUK]

This (I hope) is a major positive step for the Total War series, however as they said a lot of hard work is needed to be done, they have lost a lot of ground IMO. IMO advances in the game have been minimal and IMO it has been a long term case of 'rinse and repeat' using the same old game mechanics with different eye candy/skins. IMO I believe serious investment is needed for development of the fundamental core features to push the Total War titles forward and beyond, including AI and more advanced, realistic war strategic and tactical mechanics where all info, events and outcomes need to be shared 100% between both campaign and real time battle. Fingers crossed :)

[@kingbr47]

Even though these promises sound good, they are just as you said at the end, promises. For me they have to grind a good hole year with this mindset to begin to change my view on them. Because in my eyes all this, including the free updates to a paid DLC (which imo should be a free update period, for everyone, if they really cared for their image in the eyes of their years-long consumers), and partial refund for Pharaoh, are just damage control. The only reason they are doing this is because they got fucked trying to be scumbags, so just changing things the way they always should have been isn't really a way to make things up. Things would just continue being shitty if it didn't backfire, so I won't hold my breath waiting for these promises, just as we couldn't when we waited these past years for a good game release.

[@emilsmith7159]

Glad to see the overdue changes, but I recently jumped ship to Bannerlord after the lackluster Pharaoh launch. Bannerlord is so much more amazing than Total War games and it will be tough to go back.

[@Guitarman5705]

Flowery language doesnt forgive them for the shit they have been pulling. Until they show a change in mindswt ill sit out on any new dlcs or content i think, too many other games to play

[@ian69williams]

For me there is one simple fact will not be buying any CA product while Rob Bartholomew is in post while he is in post it shows CA's priorities do now lie with its customer base as such I am no longer one.

[@OneEyedDemon260]

The only real problem I have with total war is the fact I gotta pay for blood ik its cheep but paying for that is crazy

[@Hjorth87]

Do you have "Nofret" in Norway? Its a Danish comic series that takes place in Bronze age Mediterranean, and is made by a bronze age and near oriental enthusiast. Her name is Sussi Bech

[@tylerberg8534]

After reading so many comments, fans asking for for a new Emp or Medi is a meme now

[@onurgorkemgurkan7835]

Wow, they realized paying customers' aren't stupid, and if they want 60 dollars for a game it has to worth it. It took them a while.

[@dpancerovas]

It already looked like C.A. was going the way of Call Of Duty and NBA 2K devs: in the sense that their own players hate them :) Been a loyal TW fan since Medievel II, but for the last few years I've been most impressed by Barbedwire Studios who made Call To Arms and Gates To Hell. They should be The Example for both C.A. and Relic. Barbedwire's Gates Of Hell DLC is fairly priced and new content always keeps the game fresh and deep. They recently released the brilliant Liberation DLC for 24.99$. I like that Barbedwire's relationship with fans is not determined by communication slogans and "sincere" statements prepared by PR, but really listening to the feedback of the game's fans and focusing on creating the perfect game. Not perfect profits or statements.

[@strykerhalo]

I’d love to see an American Civil War game done really well.