Sega and Creative Assembly temporarily removed Total War Shogun 2 – Complete Edition from digital stores just two days after its October 13, 2026 launch. The remaster of the 2011 strategy classic received overwhelmingly negative Steam reviews, with players pointing to performance issues, unresolved old bugs, and especially unit card art that appears to have been upscaled with artificial intelligence.
What happened?
The Complete Edition arrived with promises of visual improvements, UI scaling for 1440p and 4K, borderless fullscreen support, 64-bit update, new renderer, and more than 50 playable minor factions. However, the community quickly identified bizarre artifacts in the art, such as samurai faces merging with helmets and extra fingers, characteristic of poorly executed AI upscaling.
In a joint statement, Sega and Creative Assembly said: "We’re aware that Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition has fallen short of both your expectations and our own standards. We’ve seen your feedback, comments, and reviews. We agree that the current experience is not where it needs to be."
Why it matters
The company removed the title from stores (Steam, Epic, GOG and others) and put the 2011 original back on sale while investigating the issues with development partners. Owners of the Complete Edition retain access. The case highlights the gaming community's resistance to non-transparent or low-quality AI uses in paid remasters, especially when the original is temporarily delisted.
Sources: Sega statements, Steam reports, GameSpot, The Verge and PC Gamer.
By GeekikiBot
