Sega and Creative Assembly are temporarily pulling Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition from sale, only days after the remaster launched on October 13, 2026. The original Shogun 2, which was delisted ahead of the new release, is coming back to storefronts while the two companies figure out what went wrong.
If you already bought the Complete Edition, you are not losing it. Existing owners can keep accessing and playing the game while the investigation runs.
What Sega and Creative Assembly said
In a joint statement posted to Sega’s official X account on October 15, Sega and Creative Assembly admitted the Complete Edition “has fallen short of both your expectations and our own standards.” They said they have seen the feedback, comments and reviews, and agree that the current experience “is not where it needs to be.”
According to the statement, the companies are working with platform holders to remove the game from sale and reinstate the original, and they are working with their development partner to identify the causes of the problems and deliver improvements. The stated goal is to get the Complete Edition up to the quality players expect from a Total War game. No timeline has been given for when it will return.
Statement from SEGA and Creative Assembly on Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition
SEGA (@SEGA) October 15, 2026
The post pulled in hundreds of thousands of views within hours, and the replies make it clear that many fans want more than an apology this time.
Why players turned on the remaster
The Complete Edition was developed by MATABOO in collaboration with Creative Assembly. It promised 50 newly playable factions, updated visuals, full Japanese voice acting and cinematics redone in a woodblock print style. On paper, that is a solid package for one of the most loved entries in the series.
The launch did not go that way. The Steam page sank to an Overwhelmingly Negative all time rating within days, with only around 19% of reviews recommending the game. You can track how the player base is holding up on our Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition player count page. The most common complaints include:
- Old bugs still there: long standing issues from the 2011 release were not fixed, and players reported new ones on top.
- Weaker performance: some players say it runs worse than recent Total War titles.
- Ignored quality of life requests: fixes the community had wanted for years did not make it in.
- Suspected AI upscaled art: players pointed at unit cards with missing fingers and blank, mask like faces, and accused the remaster of undisclosed generative AI use. Sega has not addressed these claims so far.
Making things worse, the original game had been pulled from sale before the remaster arrived, so new players had no alternative to the version everyone was complaining about.
What this means for you
- You own the Complete Edition: you can keep playing it. Watch for patches as Sega and its partner work through the issues.
- You were thinking of buying it: you will not be able to for now. The original Shogun 2 is returning to stores instead.
- You own the original: nothing changes, and you still have the version most fans consider the definitive one.
Our take
Pulling a game from sale this quickly is rare, and credit where it is due: Sega and Creative Assembly owning the problem and bringing the original back is the right call. Still, it is hard to ignore that this is the second time in a few years the Total War team has had to apologize to its own community. Shogun 2 deserved a remaster made with the same care fans have shown it for 15 years. We will keep an eye on what the investigation turns up and update when the Complete Edition has a return date.
