Total War: Warhammer Dev "Disheartened" By Negative Response to Preorder DLC Plan

The Creative Assembly, developer of Total War: Warhammer, has addressed the backlash to its preorder DLC incentive, describing it as "disheartening."

In an interview with Eurogamer, game designer Rich Aldridge was asked if the development team was surprised by the reaction to making one of the game's races a preorder bonus.

"Yes and no." he replied. "I think some people are always going to want to voice their opinion and be heard, and sadly that tends to be more negative than positive. [The Chaos Warriors are] a very important race and they do feature in the game. What we've decided to do is we've added additional content and then made them playable."

As announced in October, the Chaos Warriors Race Pack includes three playable Legendary Lords, and is only available when the PC strategy game is preordered from select participating retailers. Aldridge's statements indicated that, while the feedback is being taken on board, the Chaos Warriors would remain as a preorder incentive.

"We actually thought by adding more content, that would make it an exciting preorder proposition for them. But certainly all of the criticism that we've taken and the comments that have been made, we have been absorbing and taking on board for future products."

Asked if he thinks the 40,000 plus dislikes on the announcement trailer for the race was justified, Aldridge said it was "disheartening."

He continued: "You never like to see there being a negative aspect of the game, but it seems to be something which is becoming, sadly, a more common trend with a number of games.

"Again, I'd like to stress that by adding the additional content that actually the users get a far better game in the long term. And, obviously, it's their decision whether they wish to purchase now or in the future. We leave that open to them."

Sega previously said Total War: Warhammer will deliver "hundreds of hours" of gameplay and two additional expansions will follow. Total War: Warhammer is the first in a three-part trilogy that will include two standalone further installments, as well as DLC packs.

For more on Total War: Warhammer, check out GameSpot's recent hands-on preview and interview with The Creative Assembly, as well as some more stories below.

• Watch Total War Warhammer's New Gameplay Trailer
• Total War: Warhammer's Epic Griffin Creature Revealed