Creative Assembly has defended its decision to sell the next downloadable content (DLC) pack for Total War: Warhammer 3, Shadows Of Change, at an increased cost – despite causing backlash and negative reviews from players.
Earlier in the month, Creative Assembly revealed Shadows Of Change, Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC that will add three new legendary lords and more recruitable units to the game.
However, the DLC’s price raised eyebrows at the time. At £20, the new content is £7 more expensive than the game’s previous lord pack, Champions Of Chaos. It also costs the same as Forge Of The Chaos Dwarfs – which was released in April and added a new faction with 26 units, compared to the 11 advertised with Shadows Of Change.
As a result, the Total War subreddit has accused the company of implementing a price hike while offering less content, and posts critical of the decision have received thousands of upvotes. The backlash has also made its way to Total War: Warhammer 3‘s Steam page, which lists its recent player review rating as “Mostly Negative” due to an influx of reviews criticising the game’s DLC pricing.
Yesterday (August 17), Creative Assembly acknowledged the backlash but stood by its decision to increase the price for Shadows Of Change.
“To get right into it: our costs are up,” wrote Rob Bartholomew, chief product officer at Creative Assembly. “Unfortunately, that means that prices have to rise. We know any increase is going to be tough, which is why our prices have remained fairly stable over the past few years. The downside is that any increase today is going to be more noticeable.”
“There’s no good time to increase prices, and we have not taken this step lightly,” they continued. “However, this is the business reality of supporting Warhammer 3 and ensuring we’re able to offer the years of extra content that are currently planned.”
However, Bartholomew admitted that the studio should “challenge” itself to make sure the DLC’s “cost still offers good value”.
Meanwhile, senior game director Rich Aldridge said Creative Assembly “wanted to somewhat break the mould of past DLCs to ensure that we could bring you as much content variety as possible,” and claimed the studio will keep “assessing and iterating” going forward.
However, the response has been met with further criticism from players, who feel the DLC’s price increase does not align with what it offers. One Reddit poster claims they have refunded their pre-order for Creative Assembly’s next game, Total War: Pharaoh, after feeling “rubbed the wrong way” by the statement.
Another labelled it a “corporate nothing burger” and said they have cancelled their pre-order for Shadows Of Change, as has this Reddit poster.
While it remains to be seen if the situation will change, Shadows Of Change is set to launch on August 31.
In other gaming news, Red Dead Redemption‘s PS4 and Nintendo Switch port has launched – though the release has faced its own price-related criticism.