Key Highlights:
- SEGA and Creative Assembly are working to remove Shogun 2 Complete Edition from sale and restore the original game.
- The new edition has received Overwhelmingly Negative Steam reviews, with complaints about bugs, performance and artwork.
- Existing owners retain access, while Creative Assembly is seeking extended refund periods.
Just two days after release, Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition is set to be temporarily removed from sale following widespread player complaints, with SEGA and Creative Assembly working to restore the original 2011 game to digital storefronts.
In a statement published on October 15, the companies acknowledged that the updated edition had fallen below both player expectations and their own quality standards.
“We agree that the current experience is not where it needs to be,” the companies admitted, confirming that they are working with platform holders to withdraw the game while investigating the reported problems.
Existing owners will retain access to Complete Edition and can continue playing while SEGA, Creative Assembly and development partner MATABOO work on improvements.
The reversal follows a disastrous reception on Steam. At the time of writing, Complete Edition carries an Overwhelmingly Negative rating, with just 19% positive reviews from more than 1,500 Steam purchasers.
Players have reported stuttering, crashes, unresponsive units, longstanding siege pathfinding problems and visual inconsistencies. Criticism has also focused on the updated unit cards and artwork, which some players believe were processed using AI upscaling.
However, the alleged use of generative AI has not been confirmed by SEGA or Creative Assembly, and the companies have not identified which specific issues are responsible for the withdrawal.
The complaints extend beyond the game’s appearance. In Creative Assembly’s official bug-reporting discussion, players described familiar problems with Yari Wall formations, battle AI and multiplayer desynchronisation, alongside new reports of the game failing to launch through SteamOS.
One player also reported that a head-to-head multiplayer campaign became unplayable around turn 20 because of a recurring desynchronisation error.
I think the decision to restore the original game is particularly significant. Players were not simply being offered a new edition with optional improvements; the existing standalone version had already been removed from sale, leaving newcomers without a separate way to purchase the original experience.
That change happened on September 28, ahead of Complete Edition’s October 13 launch.
The new release was priced at £34.99, offering enhanced graphics, a 64-bit upgrade, more than 50 additional playable minor factions and all the major expansions.
But another important difference concerns modding. Original Shogun 2 mods are not compatible with Complete Edition, which instead uses Mod.io. Existing modded campaigns therefore cannot simply be moved into the updated version with their original modifications intact.
There is a longer history of repackaging the strategy classic. Back in January 2013, GLN covered SEGA’s Total War Shogun 2 Gold Edition announcement, which bundled the original game with Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai.
The 2026 release had also introduced a 75% loyalty discount for existing Steam owners, originally scheduled to remain available until November 12. SEGA has not clarified whether that promotion will be extended or changed following the withdrawal.
Refunds are another unresolved issue.
Responding to a player in the official Creative Assembly discussion, a company representative confirmed that the team is contacting platform holders about extending refund periods for Complete Edition purchasers.
Creative Assembly says it wants players seeking refunds to receive them, but no revised refund window or blanket approval policy has been announced.
SEGA and Creative Assembly have not provided a timetable for the game’s return to sale or specified which fixes will arrive first. The original Shogun 2 is expected to become available to purchase separately again as the companies work through the problems.
