Creative Assembly Finally Addresses The Shogun 2 Remaster Disaster By Pointing Fingers

Key Points:

• Creative Assembly (CA) has acknowledged the disastrous release of Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition, admitting the remaster "did not meet the bar" and expressing shared frustration with players over the poor quality and performance issues.
• The remaster was developed by an external Polish studio, Mataboo, with CA admitting they "took our eyes off its external development," and the game did not undergo CA’s usual internal review and quality assurance processes.
• CA vice president Roger Collum emphasized that the studio does not use generative AI to create game assets and requires the same from external developers, though AI was used in the remaster for upscaling some original art assets, which contributed to the negative reception.
• A small team of senior CA developers is now working with Sega and the external developer to address the issues, while Collum urged the community to direct criticism at him rather than the developers, calling for respectful treatment of the people involved.
• The situation raises concerns about oversight and quality control, as the original game was pulled from sale while the problematic remaster was released, prompting further inquiries into how such a significant lapse occurred.