The gaming franchise “Total War” fell out of favor with fans following the release of the latest games: Total War: Warhammer 3 and Total War: Pharaoh angered fans of the series. Many negative reviews piled up on Steam. The creators seemed greedier. For 2024, they promised improvement, which they plan to implement definitively for 2025.
What was the problem with Total War: Warhammer? Total War is an essential game series on PC. The series shapes gaming on PC like few other strategy game series, perhaps comparable only to Civilization and Crusader Kings. The series is known for its battles; Total War began in 2000 with Shogun and reached a first peak in 2004 with the outstanding Rome: Total War.
Games in the “Total War” series now live off continually growing with DLCs, generating revenue. One of the two current games “Total War: Warhammer 3” has received DLCs and expansions worth several hundred euros.
However, in recent years there have been dissonances, especially with “Total War: Warhammer 3”. Fans felt: They weren’t getting enough for their money. Expensive DLCs in the range of 20 to 30 € brought only a few new features. The game fell short of user expectations and was penalized on Steam.
At the end of 2023, the developers announced a course change: They wanted to listen to fans again and show more friendliness.
3 annoying features to be removed from Total War
This is now the announcement: By the end of 2024, the developers note that they started addressing numerous issues in 2024 and increased the quality of the content. The team summarizes (via creative-assembly): “We have taken some solid first steps.”
But for the future, they promise more:
- They want to forego the “standard” 4-euro DLC that comes with every game and unlocks blood and gore effects. This could lead to future games having a higher age rating, but the step is necessary, the developers explain.
- Moreover, they want to abolish their own “Total War” launcher so that people can log in directly from Steam.
- Additionally, they will no longer unlock entire factions as bonuses for pre-orders: While they will grant pre-orderers additional advantages, it won’t include entire factions. This made a pre-order feel too much like a “mandatory purchase”.
In 2025, the 25th anniversary of the series will be celebrated, and they are planning new content for Total War: Warhammer 3, which remains clearly the star of the offering. The unloved Pharaoh is not mentioned much. They have practically completely overhauled and relaunched it with the free mega-update “Pharaoh: Dynasties”.
How players are reacting: The mood among fans has improved significantly, but there are, of course, many further demands. Players wish for more content for their favorite faction in Warhammer or demand that the developers also remove Denuvo while they are at it.
There are also players who desire a stronger historical focus, without “superhero leaders” as seen in the newer titles.
The trend is moving away from using proprietary launchers
What it’s about: The things they are cutting are typical “corporate” things that benefit the company but annoy players: The trend that one is only a real company or franchise if one has their own launcher has been met with much resentment. People simply want to start everything via Steam.
For 2024, Creative Assembly has to be given a good report for the Total War series; however, one must also wonder why such a course change was necessary and why the series had to fall so low before it could recover. More on Total War: Warhammer 3: Two years ago, I wasted 60 € on a game on Steam: It should finally be good now.
