A message from Vice President of Total War, Roger Collum:
Dear Total War fans,
First, I just want to say thank you. Thank you.
This week our team has been working tirelessly to resolve issues with Omens of Destruction. It’s a tough balance (literally) that we dance as we work towards getting WARHAMMER III in the right place for everyone. A big challenge in game making is trying to please everyone without watering things down so much that you basically ruin what's special. The truth of the matter is that it will be impossible to please everyone. Instead, we’ll always strive to make the best decisions we can which make the game as good as we hope it can be. We’ll always be heavily guided directly and indirectly by all of you. It’s why we’ve put the latest patch out as a beta first.
That said, we’re privileged to make video games so it’s a nice challenge to have.
It was around this time last year that I wrote to all of you for the first time, acknowledging where we had gone wrong as a franchise and lost sight of what’s important. Understandably that message was received with a mix of hope and a heavy dose of scepticism.
I said that we wouldn’t be able to fix these issues overnight and that it would take time and effort. We’re still very much on that journey. You’ve been patient while we adjusted our focus on what really matters to you. This gave us space and time to deliver on some of the things that you’ve told us you value the most such as greater transparency and consistency in the quality and the value you get across our games.
I think we’ve made some solid first steps towards delivering on those pledges, and we’ve tried very hard to put ourselves out there as honestly and plainly as possible. I’m eager to hear if you agree and get more of your ideas for what we could do.
This last year included releasing our big Dynasties expansion and High Tides DLC as free updates for PHARAOH. Updating Shadows of Change with more content to make it the size it should have been, as well as splitting up Thrones of Decay to give you more choice. We introduced more frequent WARHAMMER III patches to continually improve such a massive and complex game, and explored new ways to talk to you through blogs and videos directly from the teams. Most recently brought to you by Steve, Rich, Sean, Todor, Mitch, Victor, Josh, Chris, Milcho, and many people behind the scenes with our What’s Next series.
There are so many people that help to make the things you see happen, from QA, the development team, facilities, IT, Creative, Brand, Core Technology, and many more.
It hasn’t been a perfect year by any stretch, but we hope that you can see the efforts we’re making. We are listening, learning and striving to deliver to the standards you expect of us. I’d also be a fool if I didn’t say how proud I am of the team in the United Kingdom and Bulgaria, as they’ve worked so hard and so passionately across each game as one big team.
Looking to the future, we’re determined to keep our momentum delivering on our pledges and actively look for new ways to make more positive change:
- Our approach to Blood Packs will change: If a future Total War game, thematically, requires blood then we will include it within the base game without the need for a separate purchase. This might mean an increase in our age ratings for future titles and how we potentially market our games, but we want the franchise to be as thrilling, immersive and authentic as possible.
- The Total War ‘launcher’ will be removed: I believe we all want a seamless Total War experience, and the launcher is a hindrance to that. We’re working on a plan to remove its requirement but want to ensure we have a Mod Management system in place before doing so. I’m not sure when this is coming but we are actively working on it.
- Factions will no longer be an early-adopter bonus: This has been a divisive inclusion for past releases, so we want to ensure that what we're offering appeals to more players. If you like to support us through pre-orders, we will still ensure some form of bonus such as discounts, but as always, we are interested in hearing your suggestions through our community forums.
- Shadows of Change will offer individual purchase options alongside updates to its featured races: We’re working on a plan for next year which brings key campaign changes to Kislev’s content alongside some smaller improvements for Tzeentch and Grand Cathay, while also providing anyone who hasn’t purchased Shadows of Change with the ability to buy each pack individually like Thrones of Decay.
In 2025 Total War celebrates a monumental landmark, our 25th Anniversary! Throughout the year we’ll have new free and DLC content for WARHAMMER III. We also want to look to the past as we celebrate our storied catalogue of releases; journeying through each title that has been released since 2000.
And yes, we hope to unveil some new projects too - we’ll share more when we’re ready at the tail-end of next year.
As our teams begin to depart to enjoy a well-deserved holiday, we look forward to the new year and continuing this journey together. I wish them and you a great end to the year and start to 2025.
Total War is part of Creative Assembly’s identity, it is who we are, and your support is what makes everything we do possible.
Here's to you and many more years of incredible strategy games.
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.
—Roger Collum, Vice President of Total War
Total Score, 2024
Before we go, it’s that time again where we look back at all of your Total War achievements throughout the year and turn them into a big shiny story that celebrates your warfaring exploits over the past 12 months.
To jazz things up, we’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time comparing the data with various real-world facts and statistics, so before we hit you with the big summary graphic, let’s shine the spotlight on a few of them…
Total War: WARHAMMER III
Total Campaigns Played: 31.3 million
Let’s kick things off with a pretty impressive stat. This year you’ve ventured out on over 31 million campaigns in Total War: WARHAMMER III! To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of 1 new campaign started EVERY SECOND. Constant Conquering!
Total War: WARHAMMER III
#1 Most Played Campaigns: Karl Franz
Once again Karl Franz takes the top spot for most campaigns played! That’s enough hammers to comfortably stock around 275,000 hardware stores. Although, we have no idea how long it would take to make that many copies of Ghal Maraz…
Total War: WARHAMMER III
#2 Most Played Campaigns: Elspeth von Draken
Yes, the Dark Lady of Nuln has taken the number 2 spot this year! She was clearly the fan favourite from Thrones of Decay, even being popular enough to knock Grand Cathay off the top spot in Asia! Quite the feat!
Total War: WARHAMMER III
#3 Most Played Campaigns: Malakai Makaisson
Nice to see two Thrones of Decay Legendary Lords on the podium! After some quick calculations, that’d be around 39 billion beard hairs. Interestingly, or perhaps even depressingly, if you had a dollar for every one of those beard hairs, you’d only have 11% of the richest person on Earth’s net worth. Huh. Well, regardless, that’s nothing short of impressive.
Total War: WARHAMMER III
Most Kills (Unit): Helstorm Rocket Battery
Our reliable advisors tell us that this is the equivalent of around 183,000 professional fireworks displays. Might be a good idea to invest in some decent ear defenders. Safety first!
Total War: WARHAMMER III
Most Killed (Unit): Jade Warriors
This is around the same number of live websites on the internet. Imagine that, a website dedicated to every single Jade Warrior killed in 2024. Sadly, I don’t have a list of all their names, so we’ll just have to forget them and move on…
Total War: WARHAMMER III
Nurglings Popped: 175 million
It’s a sombre thought, we know. To think so many of these poor, squishy bundles of joy have been lost to us this year alone. BUT more importantly, did you know that if you lined up all of those Nurglings side by side, they’d comfortably blockade the entire coastline of Australia? You may want to reconsider that trip to Bondi Beach…
Total War: PHARAOH
Most Kills (Unit): Lower Egyptian Archers
That’s certainly a lot of arrows! If you were to line up all of those arrows end to end, they’d stretch almost one and a half times the entire length of the Nile. That’s nearly 10,000 kilometres!
Here’s a look at all of this year’s stats in one place:
Are there any that surprised you? We’d love to know what other stats you’d be intrigued to see in future Total Scores, so please let us know your thoughts in the comments and we’ll see what we can pull together!
Thanks again for being with us through 2024. From all of us across the teams, we wish you and your loved ones a very happy Holidays, and we’ll see you in 2025!
—The Total War Team
