Not only Paradox Interactive had problems this year. The Creative Assembly studio also fell into a difficult position for gamers, and the team was supposedly going to be seriously reduced. About how deplorable the situation for the creators of the Total War series is evidenced by the anonymous statements of the former and current employees of the company.

Interview with developers working in the British studio began to appear on the network immediately after the cancellation of Hyenas, the cool reception and actual failure of Total War: Pharaoh. Many turned to the Volound YouTuber, but the information about the situation in Creative Assembly was obtained from other sources. Some of them were collected by the host of the Bellular News channel, which summarized the received messages in his own material.

It is worth clarifying in advance that this is unconfirmed information, so treat it skeptical.

To begin with, it is known without leaks and rumors: gamers began to complain about Creative Assembly not only now. In addition to accusations of too much DLC, they indicated the lack of innovation and significant improvements to the Total WAR of recent years, as well as the absence of completely new projects, t.e. not continuations of strategic series.

According to Volound materials and an interview with Balin Markin (who took part in the development of the first two games of the Pockel TW: Warhammer), the lack of innovation is not related to the lack of ideas. Among other things, the third Warhammer was supposed to get wider possibilities of multiplayer and army designer. However, most of these ideas were in the garbage basket, including sea battles in Empire. This may be a surprise, since Creative Assembly, according to some reports, is the highest -income studio belonging to Sega (partly because it occupies a niche in which there is practically no competition in the market).

Volound sources claim that the company is working on a new engine to make it easier to add new elements (the current engine remembers the times of Rome 2 and so "Close", which, apparently, does not allow developers to experiment). But the work on him actually stalled.

In some way, the so -called studio oversees the studio "Branding team", which is responsible for the presentation of the studio projects to the publisher. In other words, it is this group that decides what ideas will go to production.

The problem is that these "Managers", According to Volound surveyed, they have too much influence on the work of the studio, even make up "Bible" – project development plans, covering all "life cycle" production. This would not be a big problem if it were not for a persistent desire to increase profit due to an increase "average cost of the game" and implement this due to short -term solutions.

In practice, this manifested itself in great attention to the creation of DLC in the form "REKINOV" Old content. Thus, employees were distracted from other activities (including the development of studio technologies).

Balint Marchin noted that this approach to some extent indicates the disrespect Creative Assembly to customers. He was echoed by Volound interlocutors, because, although the idea of ​​DLC, in their opinion, is not bad, the studio used it very "cynical" way". In addition, she did not particularly care about the opinion of the players, practically ignoring their comments.

The main culprit is Rob Bartoloi. If you do not take into account the unflattering and non-informative comments of Volund interlocutors and the opinion of it among fans, then the approach of the Total War brand director is considered the quintessence of problems "Branding teams" Studios. Bartholomew, as they say, appeared at the company’s meetings, presenting sales schedules as an argument in favor of the aforementioned increase "the average consumption of the player" (Read: Unrestrained DLC release).

One of the sources even stated that "9/10" unpopular solutions, including raising prices for DLC and an exclusivity deal with EPIC Games, were "Obligated" Bartholomew and other managers of the marketing team.

Former CA employees also indicate two other circumstances that could improve the situation in the studio:

• First, competition, at least from Paradox Interactive. If you believe the Volound sources, Creative Assembly was afraid of the publisher’s expansion into the sphere of battles in real time, which, given the last steps of Paradox, may be quite justified. The appearance of a strong competitor would be a serious shake for Total War developers;
• secondly, a more sharp reaction of the community. Some sources believe that if fans previously responded to the problems of the series, as in the case of Pharaoh, then the company could have long been positive changes.

It is worth emphasizing once again: the above information is not confirmed by anything and should not be perceived as a fact.