The Creative Assembly and SEGA have had some troubling time. Have had? No, actually, it’s an ongoing process. Let’s be honest, SEGA is not a consumer friendly company. Just a few years ago they struck down video after video of Youtubers showing off their game for, well, practically no legitimate reason beyond ‘because we wanted to, here, have this made up stupid reason’. That sparked a boycott of SEGA products that some Youtubers, like Totalbiscuit still uphold to this very day.

The Creative Assembly, being the men and women behind the beloved Total War series, had somewhat of a better reputation. Not really no more though after that fiasco of Rome II (I got to admit that initially I liked Rome II, it was only after sometime that the nostalgic new game smell wore off for me.) But things really started to change with Shogun II, didn’t it? One DLC after the other rolling out and the trend continued over to Fall of the Samurai, Rome II and Attila. Now Total War: Warhammer. When the developers announced Chaos will be part of a pre-order incentive, oh man did the valves blow.

Now CA Creative Director Mike and Brand Director Rob reached out on the forums for some late attempt at conciliation, marking down their version of the story and explaining why exactly Chaos comes out cut from the main game. Well, it’s the good old ‘game development is expensive’ lamentation. Look, we all get it. Most of us, I mean. Games cost money, loads of money and hard calls have to be made. No one wants to see CA go down the drain, just think of all the talented artists, programmers and personnel that suddenly finds itself laid off with an unsure future in an industry that is not exactly healthy. But here is the thing, day one content DLC is bad. Cut out from the main part, it is anti-consumer to the extreme.

Perhaps it is true that CA had no ‘resources’ to make a Chaos faction available early on without the pre-order. In that case, tough shit, don’t make Chaos. People will buy Chaos even in a years’ time. It’s CHAOS for crying out loud. Tell it flat out to your customers you don’t have the means and you’ll do it post launch in a race pack. Maybe add another race into it and a few extra incentives and bring out a good old expansion. But don’t pull this pre-order nonsense. It’s an appeal to your good sense. CA is already in somewhat of a PR quagmire, don’t make it worse. Honesty is great, and maybe your explanation was an honest reflection of your motivations. But in that case you were riding the wrong horse and you’ve got to realize it.