Total War: Warhammer, and the future of CA

The Future of Creative Assembly and Total War

By Tim Hunter

Earlier this year Creative Assembly announced one of the largest, and most impressive mergers in the history of popular culture. The idea was simple enough, and feels like something that should have been done years ago. Take Warhammer Fantasy Battles, still the most popular miniatures game played in the world, and merge it with Total War (TW), a video game series that has mastered the art of depicting gigantic battles on sweeping landscapes. The idea is almost as old as the Total War series, itself. Warhammer has given its players the ability to open their minds to vast battles, sieges, and other worlds entirely, all simulated through their imaginations. Total War simulates great battles in all their cinematic glory, allowing the player a birds-eye strategic view, but also the ability to zoom down and witness the full bloody minutiae. Game modders have made dozens of Warhammer modifications for Total War games over the years, inserting the colourful Warhammer world into the Total War game engine. With an official meeting of the two brands, it would seem like the match made in heaven has finally come to earth. However, all is not well, and gamers are already outraged by the invasion of potentially anti-consumer business practices from the companies handling the title.

I’ll begin by saying that I’m a huge fan of both franchises, and have been since childhood. While the miniatures game has lost its appeal to me, I’ve remained a staunch lover of the literature and video gaming adaptations of the franchise. The Warhammer world is grim and gritty, inventive and iconic. It has remained a unique series, while inspiring many authors of fantasy fiction with its characterful world. Its stories range from bulk fantasy schlock to some of the best-written work of the genre, especially in the hands of industry legends like Dan Abnett. Total War has also held a close place to my heart, allowing me to spend days of my time building empires, seeing history through an entertaining lens, and fighting battles in startling detail. Some of my fondest gaming memories arose from the Total War games, and even my mother encouraged me to enjoy my time with them as a teenager, since they engaged me with history and stirred my creativity. 

It is for these reasons that I, like so many fans of both series, have been shocked by the recent announcement from Total War’s publisher, Creative Assembly (CA), to launch Total War: Warhammer with a pre-order downloadable content pack (DLC) that specifically removes one of the most famous and iconic factions from the game for those who do not pre-order or pay for them post-launch, The Warriors of Chaos. People not familiar with the series might not appreciate the magnitude of this, but it might help to imagine a Star Wars game without The Empire, or Lord of the Rings without the orcs of Mordor. Putting aside the questionable practices of DLC in general, especially pre-order or day-one DLC, Warhammer fans have exploded with righteous indignation that a faction that is so iconic, so very central to the conflict of the Warhammer fictional world would be removed from the standard retail game. 

Aside from this sheer knee-jerk reaction, the problem with this announcement is that it throws into sharp contrast the questionable direction that CA and their publisher, Sega, are taking both franchises. The problem is threefold, firstly that the practice of pre-order DLC encourages consumers to purchase before the game is released, and therefore bypassing the process of reviews and consumer research. This alone should put customers on their guard. Total War: Rome 2 launched in 2013 with its own questionable pre-order bonus, and the game was plagued with bugs to the point that it was unplayable for months, leaving those who pre-ordered with a distinctly shoddy experience. Whether or not this pre-order pushing was done to bypass the unfavourable reviews, or simply to impress shareholders is unknown. 

Secondly, this content has been announced five months in advance of the game’s launch. This means that the content is clearly already built into the game, and there is no reason other than profit not to release the content along with the rest of the game. Among the greatest fears of the gaming public is that publishing companies will take a packaged product and then dice it up into smaller pieces, so as to charge a much greater fee in the long run. DLC has become a staple of the gaming industry, and can add longevity to a game purchase by updating and reinvigorating it, however, the idea of breaking up the content for DLC sales before the game is even available seems to defeat the original purpose. A world where game developers can simply remove parts of a game before release is kind of like one where an author can simply remove chapters of a book, and sell them later, claiming that they aren’t part of the core reading experience, but he’ll sell them to you if you want an expanded experience. 

The final problem with this practice is that it defies everything that CA had previously said about their release. When Total War: Warhammer was first announced, CA clearly stated that there would be four playable races, each with their own campaigns, and story lines. Given that there are about fifteen playable races in the Warhammer world, putting only four playable factions in the game seemed a little light. The Warriors of Chaos were perhaps the most conspicuously absent, since they play such a large role in the Warhammer franchise. CA’s response was that Total War: Warhammer was planned to be released as a trilogy of games, with each game expanding on the playable factions and world map. This alone seemed a little on the unusual side, and verging on profiteering, since the game would likely have to be purchased at standard retail pricing in three stages, though it was not an unheard of business practice (the Starcraft series also uses this model). For CA to announce this model, and then suddenly announce that one of the most popular Warhammer factions would be released as DLC seemed like a sudden backflip. How will the player be able to experience the full game? Will they have to buy three iterations of the same game to access all the content, or will this be DLC-based, with factions being released individually over time? It seems as though CA is trying to have it both ways, and the only loser here will probably be the consumer, stuck with a product delivered in expensive pieces rather than as a whole. 

Currently, fan outrage has been overflowing on forums and gaming websites, with community celebrities, such as Joe Vargas, expressing heartfelt outrage. CA’s business practices are likely the result of pressure from their publisher, Sega, who likely needs the TW franchise to perform financially, and to justify the rights to the Warhammer licence that they’ve paid for. However, I hope that the outrage has been heard, and that CA passes on the negative feedback and indignation of the community to Sega. With the game’s release date still five months away, it will come down to community pressure, and unity against the combined might of CA and Sega. If Sega does not relent, and the game is still financially successful, this could be the proving ground that Sega needs to make such practices standard for future game releases. Should the community outrage become a strong enough movement, and the community vote with their wallets by refusing to pre-order or buy the DLC (perhaps boycotting the game entirely), then this could be an unpleasant lesson for CA and Sega about how best to monetize their games without invoking community ire. Five months remain, a long time for this conflict to come to a head.