Sega and Creative Assembly began temporarily suspending sales of Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition just days after its release on October 13. The companies acknowledged that the game’s current state falls short of both audience expectations and their own quality standards.

The decision was announced following a flood of negative user ratings and comments. Some fans have linked the problems to the possible use of artificial intelligence, but the official statement does not mention the technology or provide specific reasons for suspending sales.

What is changing for buyers and existing owners

Sega and Creative Assembly said they are working with platform operators to temporarily remove Complete Edition from sale. At the same time, they are seeking to make the original Total War: Shogun 2 available again. The statement did not specify when these changes would be implemented across all affected storefronts.

Players who have already purchased Complete Edition will not lose access to it. The companies explicitly confirmed that existing owners will still be able to launch and play the version they own. The temporary measure therefore concerns the sale of new copies rather than the removal of previously purchased games from owners’ libraries.

The edition can no longer be purchased from the Steam store. Its page displays a notice stating that the game is no longer available on the store. The companies did not provide further details about the situation on other platforms or exactly when the original game would return.

Companies acknowledge that the edition’s quality is not good enough

In their published statement, Sega and Creative Assembly said they had reviewed player feedback, comments, and reviews. In their assessment, the experience currently offered by Complete Edition is not what it should be. This is a direct acknowledgment that the release failed to meet the companies’ standards, although they did not publicly list the individual problems.

Further work is being carried out alongside a development partner. The companies intend to identify the causes of the problems and prepare improvements that will bring Complete Edition up to the level of quality expected from Total War games. The development partner itself was not named in the statement.

So far, neither a list of planned changes nor a release schedule for them has been provided. There has also been no announcement about when Complete Edition might return to sale. The only official confirmation is that the removal is intended to be temporary and that the edition’s problems are being investigated.

Steam reviews became almost entirely negative

The edition’s launch was accompanied by exceptionally poor Steam user ratings. Within a few days, Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition’s overall rating had fallen to the “Overwhelmingly Negative” category, indicating that its reviews were overwhelmingly unfavorable.

Of the more than 4,000 reviews posted at the time, only 15 percent were positive. These figures illustrate the scale of the negative response, but the companies themselves did not attribute the suspension of sales to any single complaint or solely to the ratio of Steam ratings. The statement only says that player comments, feedback, and reviews had been examined.

Suspicions about artificial intelligence remain unconfirmed

Some fans believe that Complete Edition’s problems may be connected to the use of artificial intelligence. Among the signs they point to are questionable-looking image upscaling and other elements that they regard as possible traces of such technology.

However, this remains a theory put forward by players. Sega and Creative Assembly’s statement does not mention artificial intelligence at all. The companies also did not clarify whether the visual elements discussed by fans are among the issues currently being investigated.

For this reason, suspicions about the use of artificial intelligence cannot be treated as a confirmed fact or an established reason for suspending sales. Only the broader issue has been confirmed: Complete Edition did not meet the expected level of quality, so its sales are being temporarily suspended while the companies and their development partner investigate the causes of its shortcomings and prepare improvements.