Creative Assembly has announced the ending of support for Total War: Three Kingdoms as of patch 1.7.1, leading to backlash from fans. Creative Assembly is the studio responsible for developing games such as Alien: Isolation, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, Total War: Elysium, Halo War 2, and the upcoming Total War: Warhammer III. The first Total War entry from Creative Assembly came in 2000 with the release of the original Shogun: Total War.
Creative Assembly is a large studio with over 800 employees, which owes its growth to passionate fans of the Total War franchise, who have long awaited a Total War game set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Calls for a game set in China go back well over a decade on the Creative Assembly forums, showing both the popularity of the Three Kingdoms lore and how long fans have remained dedicated to the brand.
In a blog post announcing the 1.7.1 patch details, Creative Assembly included a YouTube video from the Total War account detailing the ending of support for Total War: Three Kingdoms, in order to focus on the development of a new game set in the Three Kingdoms realm. PC Gamer reports that the news angered fans who are upset over what they claim to be unresolved bug issues, and a broken promise from Creative Assembly to focus on building out the northern portion of the map. These fans decided to review-bomb Three Kingdoms on the Steam platform with negative reviews. The recent reviews portion on the Total War: Three Kingdoms Steam store page now read as 'overwhelmingly negative' after a consistent flow of complaints.
The upset fans did not stop there, moving on to target the still-supported Total War: Warhammer 2 with similar negativity, which drew attention from fans on Reddit. These fans began countering with positive reviews on the title's Steam page. It's worth noting that before the recent update from Creative Assembly, the game was quite well received on Steam. To date, 76 percent of reviews of Total War: Three Kingdoms on Stream are still positive.
Some fans of the Total War franchise are upset after Creative Assembly pulled support from Total War: Attila, bringing that frustration over to the recent announcement by the studio. While their feelings are valid, many of the negative reviews left on Steam are from those who seemingly enjoyed Total War: Three Kingdoms before Creative Assembly announced its plans. How much support a studio owes customers for a title is a worthy discussion to have within the community.
One of the main issues surrounding this latest chapter of Total War: Three Kingdoms concerns how Steams monitors reviews on its platform. While a company ending support for a game can be frustrating, it doesn't affect the quality of the game itself. Another issue arises over the supposed broken promise of Creative Assembly to expand the northern region of the map. It is not out of the question for Creative Assembly to release the DLC after the negative feedback from a segment of its fanbase. Either way, it is unlikely the recent anger will have a huge negative effect on the next Three Kingdoms title.
Total War: Three Kingdoms is available on PC.
Sources: Creative Assembly, Total War/YouTube, Fettideluxe/Reddit (via PC Gamer)
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June 01, 2021 at 05:00AM
