Total War: Warhammer 3's Tides of Torment DLC is delayed: 'We asked ourselves if this next DLC met the standards that we’ve set in recent releases, and the short answer was no'

(Image credit: Sega)

Creative Assembly has delayed the release of its upcoming Tides of Torment expansion for Total War: Warhammer 3, pushing the launch back from this summer to an unspecified date later this year.

In a blog post on Creative Assembly's website, Head of Community Adam Freeman explained that Tides of Torment has been delayed due to the expansion not currently meeting the company's standard of quality.

"In recent playtesting, we asked ourselves if this next DLC met the standards that we’ve set in recent releases, and the short answer was no," Freeman writes. "However, we know it can and so we want to spend more time working on it, reviewing the content, and improving the gameplay experiences that it’s set to bring."

In March, Creative Assembly revealed that Tides of Torment would introduce Dechala as a serpentine legendary lord for the Slaanesh faction. Further details were provided in May, where CA revealed a new Norscan faction led by a sorcerer named Sayl the Faithless.

CA had planned to share more news about these two factions fairly soon. But with the DLC delayed, Creative Assembly will likely also push back its upcoming 'What's next' video which was to focus specifically on Slaanesh and Norsca.

Freeman also apologised for 2025 being "a slower year for many of you in our Warhammer communities", though to be honest, I'm not massively surprised that Tides of Torment has been pushed back. Creative Assembly has seemed highly focused on tuning what's already in Warhammer 3 this year, rather than adding new stuff. Back in March, the studio overhauled the game's underperforming Kislev Faction to make it more fun to play, while last month saw the studio completely retune the game's magic item system.

Freeman points out that further updates in this manner will arrive over the next few months. July will bring siege improvements to the proving grounds, and August will see CA add "some overdue quality of life improvements to Tomb Kings and Lizardmen" as well as a refresh of orc and goblin character skills.

September, meanwhile, is reserved for minor hotfixes, so that's when CA will return its full attention to Tides of Torment, which Freeman suggests will arrive alongside a big new update, likely somewhere between October and December. "We won’t have any major updates planned for release in September, but we’ll stay on top of emerging issues as we get to work on the 7.0 Update."

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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