Total War: Three Kingdoms revising plans following Eight Princes DLC feedback

How curious it was the first DLC following the mega-hit launch of Total War: Three Kingdoms (the fastest-selling of the series so far, they boast) skipped past the end of the Three Kingdoms era to tell a story of a follow-up civil war. Developers Creative Assembly now suggest that the Eight Princes DLC was perhaps a misstep, and say they're bending their plans following player feedback. They also assure they are working on DLC that "adds significantly to the main campaign."

Yesterday's "behind the scenes" blog post said Creative Assembly were "excited to touch on a later and fascinating period for our first DLC, Eight Princes, but we're really aware that players were looking for something else, and so we're currently working hard on our mid-term, post-launch plans for the game with a view to doing more of what the community is feeding back to us on."

The idea of Eight Princes is still an interesting one but immediately leaving the setting players bought the game for was a curious decision. It seems like it'd be good for a later DLC once they've hit the big notes of Three Kingdoms, not for the first. Though the form of Eight Princes sounds like it was somewhat lacking too, changing far less of the game than many hoped.

"We still like the idea of Chapter Packs that explore other chapters of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, though the next one will be more recognisable to the majority of players," Creative Assembly continued. "We're also working on DLC that adds significantly to the main campaign and are continuing to look at how that might develop and grow into some much bigger DLCs over time."

What exactly that means is a mystery for now. They do reveal some of the stories and factions coming, at least. That say that over the next year Three Kingdoms will visit "the era of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Liang Province rebellion" then "the clash of Cao Cao vs Lü Bu" and the Nanman will follow. Looking deeper into the future, they say they "have some very grand plans which will encompass a whole timeline of events, conflicts and characters throughout the period" though "nothing's set in stone."

The game is a good'un, to be clear. These are revisions to plans, not a do-over. We already gave the game a shiny RPS Bestest Bests badge in our Total War: Three Kingdoms review.

The big Total War progressblast also says Total Warhammer 3 "is deep into production with the largest of our TW project teams revved up."

It drops another wee hint at the next Total War Saga game too, which everyone's pretty sure will be Total War Saga: Troy. They still don't have much to say but do hint that while striking a balance "between making a conventional Total War game at a tighter scale, that a wide audience can enjoy, but being brave with new features and dynamics to push the series forward in interesting ways," they might lean more towards brave newness. All I ask is: give me ways to be more and more of a dick until even the gods think I've gone too far.