Total War developer Creative Assembly has permanently dropped the price on the new Pharaoh installment to the strategy series and doled out a fair bit of money to players in response, partially as a refund and also in the form of once-paid DLC, while simultaneously deleting the game's pricier deluxe and Dynasty editions.
Going forward, Pharoah will cost $39.99/£29.99. This new price, down from $59.99/£49.99, is already live on Steam. In a lengthy blog post penned by the Total War leadership team, Creative Assembly confirms that "in the next few days, all current owners of Total War: Pharaoh will see that Steam has processed a partial refund to you, and that some funds have been added to your Steam Wallet."
In a separate post, the developer clarifies that "we think this is a fairer cost of the game for players." It also advises that "anyone who purchased a physical copy, please return it to the retailer you bought it from with your proof of purchase for a partial refund."
What was originally Total War: Pharaoh's first paid DLC will now be released as a free update in early 2024. Elsewhere, Creative Assembly is seemingly redrawing what comes next for the game, as evidenced by the "why is the DLC being canceled" section of that FAQ.
"We have now begun the process of reassessing what comes next for Pharaoh, and while we don’t have all the answers today, we want to make it clear to you that we’re not closing the door on other, more ambitious updates to the game in the future," the studio says. "We’ve still got big plans, but we want to be honest with you in saying that we need to spend more time with them before putting them out on show."
"One plan that we’ve always had since the early stages of development on Pharaoh is to expand the size of our campaign map as a free update, and to introduce even more factions and cultures to the game," the team adds. "We’ll have more to say, and to show, [about] what that looks like in the new year after our next update for Pharaoh releases."
Where is all of this coming from? Well, it probably has something to do with the fact that, since its release on October 11, Total War: Pharaoh has reached a "mixed" Steam review score with 56% positive feedback – a sharp contrast to its more positive 75 on Metacritic. Many self-described long-time Total War fans have been pretty down on the game, with some calling it a low point for the series. Pharaoh was notably the first full-fat mainline Total War game from a Creative Assembly offshoot.
This news arrived as part of a longer discussion from the Total War heads, with vice president Roger Collum admitting "it has been a difficult few months, and we recognize that we have made mistakes when it comes to our relationship with you all."
Reflecting on the latest additions to the franchise – also including Total War: Warhammer 3, which sits at similarly mixed Steam reviews in contrast to even more positive critical reception – Collum says: "We are sorry. We cannot fix our issues overnight, but we will work towards a more transparent, and consistent relationship with you all."
As it happens, Total War: Warhammer 3, or rather its Shadows of Change DLC, will get a free update of its own in February 2024, assuming things stay on schedule. Its Thrones of Decay DLC has been delayed to April 2024 to accommodate this, and Creative Assembly says "we also have more work to do on Thrones of Decay to make sure that we don’t repeat our past mistakes."
Earlier this year, publisher Sega canceled Creative Assembly's in-progress zero-gravity extraction shooter Hyenas.
