Creative Assembly exec pins the blame for the Shogun 2 remaster mess on someone else: 'This was not a Creative Assembly developed game'

Excitement over the Total War: Shogun 2 remaster turned to a very different emotion when it launched and turned out to be quite bad—so bad that Sega pulled it from sale just a couple days later. Now, Roger Collum, vice president of Total War at developer Creative Assembly, has posted an update on the situation in the Total War subreddit (via RPS), saying that the studio, like the fans, are "angry and disappointed" about the state of the game—which he says is not really CA's fault.

"This was not a Creative Assembly developed game," Collum wrote. "It wasn’t subject to our same internal reviews and quality assurance. We took our eyes off its external development, with all our teams focused on our next big projects. However, whatever the development arrangements, Total War is our franchise and our name is on it.

"The studio is full of craft people who care deeply about the experiences we give to our players. Shogun 2—CE did not meet that bar. We have to own that and we have to fix it."

Collum also addressed complaints about the apparent use of generative AI in the remaster, saying that Creative Assembly is a "craft studio," and that while it uses AI tools for tasks like "analysis, debugging, or speedy prototyping," it does not use generative AI to create in-game assets. "We demand the same of any external developers we work with," he wrote. "The situation with Shogun 2: Complete Edition is being investigated."

Collum didn't name the external developer of the Shogun 2 remaster, but the Steam page lists Warsaw-based Mataboo as the second studio on the project. Mataboo's website says it provides "complete end-to-end game development support," with services ranging from design and tool development to porting, optimization, compliance Q&A, and maintenance, on both PC and consoles. The studio has previously worked on games including The Blood of Dawnwalker, Silent Hill 2, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, The Medium, and numerous others.

Collum's statement doesn't appear to be going down perfectly smoothly among Total War fans. Many responses say that Creative Assembly is ultimately responsible for the game that goes out the door, and that the issues in the Shogun 2 remaster aren't small, intermittent, or otherwise easy to miss. Others point out that Creative Assembly's promotional efforts included a pre-launch livestream in which employees enthused about the game, apparently without having played it to any meaningful extent.

Collum concluded by asking fans not to direct their anger at individual developers. "As a team, we want to be transparent with our communications as much as possible, but that cannot be at the expense of the safety of our people," he wrote. "Please help keep Total War’s community spaces constructive and safe for everyone.

"I’ve said it before: when the team does well, it’s all about them. When we get it wrong, it’s on me. You absolutely have the right to be mad, and to criticise us, but direct it at me. We know we must earn your trust by making good games, and crucially, by how we respond when we get things wrong. We’re human, we will get things wrong, and I promise as long as I’m here, when that happens, we’ll hold our hands up and try to make it right."

"A small team of senior developers" from Creative Assembly are now working with Sega and the unnamed external studio to figure out where to go from here.