Publisher Sega “worried” about Total War: Warhammer 3’s post-launch sales performance, but still expects the game to deliver as updates and DLC release in the future.
The long-awaited final entry in Creative Assembly’s trilogy launched to great acclaim, but a series of issues tied to its campaign mechanics and performance alongside the extended wait for its Immortal Empires campaign saw a good chunk of its playerbase searching for greener pastures shortly after, while seemingly delaying others from purchasing the game.
“Total War: WARHAMMER III”, the new title in the previous fiscal year was strong at the beginning, it was not as good as expected thereafter, so we worried about it,” the publisher explained in an investors call from late October.
“However, due to the implementation of large-scale updates, it is showing a major recovery, and we expect it to catch up in the future.”
Total War: Warhammer 3 has received several updates focusing on balance and bug fixing, but, in the presentation, the publisher singles out the game’s August update – which introduced the Immortal Empires integrated beta – as a turning point for the grand strategy game.
“Total War: WARHAMMER III” recorded a high Metacritic score and performed well immediately after its launch in February, but since then, sales have been below expectations. However, we were able to improve the points raised by users in the major update in August, as well as other issues, and once again regain the high evaluation.”
The sandbox campaign’s arrival brought a massive spike in concurrent players, as it meant they no longer had to deal exclusively with the divisive Realm of Chaos mechanics of the third game’s base campaign.
On top of that, it also features the biggest map in the series, bringing together territories and factions from across the entire trilogy.
While updates have played a role in the game’s recovery, Sega also expects the inevitable DLC that will follow to contribute to sales.
“As a synergistic effect, sales of DLCs released in the past have also been strong, and we expect this to contribute to the accumulation of repeat sales in the future.”
Total War: Warhammer 3’s first Lords Pack added four playable characters for the Warriors of Chaos faction, which also received a much-needed rework.
Although concrete DLC plans haven’t been shared yet, there is a chance that we might see the Chaos Dwarfs joining the sizeable roster of playable races further down the line.
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