The latest Total War flops on Steam, wants to bring fans back and is giving away an expansion for around €20

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In 2023, Total War: Pharaoh, the latest part of the popular series, was released and finally a historical part again. However, it wasn’t well received by fans and quickly lost ratings and players. At the end of the year the developers gave a big apology, money back and now even a free expansion.

What’s going on in Total War?

  • In 2023, a huge dispute broke out between the developers and fans of Total War. There were two main reasons for this.
  • On the one hand, after eight years of fantasy games, a historical part of the series has finally appeared again, Total War: Pharaoh. But it is said to have been just a bad reskin from Troy, but still cost 60 euros.
  • On the other hand, the developers have raised the prices for the DLCs and charged a hefty 25 euros for new content in Total War: Warhammer 3, after there had previously been too little in the paid DLCs for the taste of the players.

    • Then everything really escalated. Total War: Warhammer 3 was only at 19 percent on Steam for some time, making it one of the worst games ever. Pharaoh, on the other hand, is only at 66 percent to date (via Steam).

    However, the developers bowed to the pressure at the end of the year and delivered properly:

    Total War Pharaoh: Trailer shows epic battles in ancient Egypt – “That made my day”

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    This is what the developers are bringing now: In the latest blog post, the developers announced the next gift for the community. Every Total War: Pharaoh owner gets a free expansion and it’s pretty packed:

  • four new factions: Mesopotamia, Assyria, Mycenae and Troy
  • 80 new units
  • 70 revised units
  • some extensions for the map

    • Total War usually sells such expansion packs as DLC for between 15 and 20 euros – or just 25 euros in the case of Warhammer 3.

    “Did they replace all their management or what?”

    Pharaoh is not doing well on Steam right now. With just over 600 players at its peak, it lags behind older parts like Rome, Rome Remastered, Empire, Attilla, Three Kingdoms and others. Even all three Warhammer parts have more players, with Warhammer 3 topping the list with almost 80,000 players (via steamcharts).

    It remains to be seen whether the new gift will bring back the fans or even attract new ones. However, the community is positively surprised and is extremely happy about the announcement.

    Hundreds of users commented on Reddit, where there is little else going on these days. It says something like: The gift came completely unexpectedly. It was more likely that developer Creative Assembly would simply let the game die. The fans are in good spirits, even if they are still a bit scratchy:

    If the game had started with Mesopotamia and Greece, it would probably have been received much better. But better late than never.

    The players wonder where the sudden change of heart comes from. It is extremely unusual for a studio to suddenly care so much about its reputation and give out so many gifts.

    Total War is currently on the rise anyway. In addition to the free expansion for Pharaoh, there was recently a new DLC for Warhammer 3 and it’s really tough: From today on I don’t really care about Manor Lords on Steam, Warhammer will keep me busy for hundreds of hours

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