End of support?

[Urinietszche]

I wonder if it's known when to expect this game will be finished, like no more hot fixes and dlcs? I am kinda itchy to play the final TW WH3, when will that happen?

[SBA77]

You never know with these things anymore. Best thing to do is just follow it until it stops updating.

Good news for you though is all the DLC just add new races and subfactions. There are no new story campaigns, adding things that should have been there in the first place or things that completely flip the game on its head and make vanilla inferior here.

[StrangestEcho]

Late 2026/early 2027 will likely be the end of DLC support. There's been no mention of whether or not CA is planning to do long term patch support after the DLC is done. Historically they have not, but there will be major community backlash if people are unhappy with the final state of the game.

[lethminite]

basically going to be when DLC sales dries up, or when another total war game starts eclipsing it in DLC sales.

My understanding is CA has 3 teams, a main game team, a DLC team, and the 'sofia' team.
Their main game team works on the next main game, their DLC team works in DLC for the previous game(s) and sofia made the smaller saga series.

Now, around when SoC released, Sega cancelled a bunch of their stuff, so I don't think we know what their current organisation is like, but I'd expect that since WH3's launch, the main game team has been working on something. Forums love to speculate it will be another IP game, like 40K, LotRs, or Starwars... but we have no clue, could be Medieval 3 or WW1 for all we know.
The DLC team will likely just keep chugging away at WH3 DLC until the new game launches, and even then, they might wait until initial sales are in, or work on one DLC then go back to WH3 DLC if the sales are better for WH3.

Sofia is the team that made TW pharaoh, which while a huge flop initially, based on pricing, and people not liking the setting, has been supported really well, and is an excellent totalwar game, and is generally seen positively now. I have no idea how much the turn around has effected the sales though. The point is, regardless of the pharaoh sales, the sofia team is clearly very skilled, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are given a bigger role, and more saga games don't seem like the way forwards. So it could even be that the teams are shuffled up so that there are two DLC teams, and one main game team, which might mean WH3 keeps getting DLC even well into the new games release.

The real problem is actually the pure size of WH3, it's really feeling like it's held together with duct tape these days. How many more DLC can they fit, before they really need to go in and fix some of the underlying issues to keep the game stable. With enough DLC sales, it would be worth doing, and you might get another 8+ years of DLC, so long as people keep spending. More realistically, I imagine it will be ~3 years of support. If they have another SoC moment, maybe they do one last Nagash DLC to get a last big sugar hit on sales, and call it quits. I can't imagine them ending the game without doing Nagash, there is no way it doesn't make money.

All of the above is entirely speculation based on what i've seen people say.

[sirkudjon]

My guess is there will be signs...

[Elitewrecker PT]

@lethminite

Sofia team is actually helping with WH3 now.

[CrUsHeR]

There likely won't be a Warhammer 4, as the world map is almost completed beyond the blocked regions in the southeast. And if there won't be a successor, they probably won't just leave the game like they did with WH2.

So i guess they are making good money with their DLCs, and there certainly are plenty of other Lords in the lore providing potential content for years to come.

Games Workshop already wrote an army book just for Cathay in TWWH3 (which didn't exist in WHFB) so perhaps they'll write more for the couple of missing races. Kuresh, Nippon, Ind, the Monkey King and whatnot. Who knows.

Most people are probably waiting for additions to Slaanesh, and some other factions with an unusually low faction count (Norsca, Tzeentch, etc).

[KeiranG19]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

There likely won't be a Warhammer 4, as the world map is almost completed beyond the blocked regions in the southeast. And if there won't be a successor, they probably won't just leave the game like they did with WH2.

So i guess they are making good money with their DLCs, and there certainly are plenty of other Lords in the lore providing potential content for years to come.

Games Workshop already wrote an army book just for Cathay in TWWH3 (which didn't exist in WHFB) so perhaps they'll write more for the couple of missing races. Kuresh, Nippon, Ind, the Monkey King and whatnot. Who knows.

Most people are probably waiting for additions to Slaanesh, and some other factions with an unusually low faction count (Norsca, Tzeentch, etc).

When CA bought the license originally it was for three games, it was always going to be a trilogy and only a trilogy.

GW wrote the new Cathay and Kislev lore as the focus of their re-launch of "The Old World" back when that was first announced. The customers for that game didn't want new factions though and they instead pivoted to launching with Bretonia and Tomb Kings. GW don't currently have any incentive to write any other new lore since they can milk the existing WHFB races for Old World content for the foreseeable future.

[Amphibian Artillery]

Back when the Chaos Dwarfs launched CA said they would support the game for 5 more years which would be 2028, but this was before the hyenas fiasco. So after all those lay offs, the SoC Controversy, and Pharaoh’s poor sales; who knows if that’s still the plan.

Though we have seen more support given to WH3 since then with CA Sofia being brought over to work on DLCs and interim patches. Along with a dedicated bug fixing team, so maybe it’s still the plan only time will tell.

[Apollyon]

I would say this year is the last, knowing that TWW2 only lasted 3 years, but maybe they'll extend this one to 4 years. So, I'm guessing 2026 is when this game dies.

[dolby]

There must be a reality out there where Hyenas never happened and the world is pretty and sweet.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by Superbia:

I would say this year is the last, knowing that TWW2 only lasted 3 years, but maybe they'll extend this one to 4 years. So, I'm guessing 2026 is when this game dies.

Wh2 was 4 years from launch to last update.

[Apollyon]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Originally posted by Superbia:

I would say this year is the last, knowing that TWW2 only lasted 3 years, but maybe they'll extend this one to 4 years. So, I'm guessing 2026 is when this game dies.

Wh2 was 4 years from launch to last update.

Ah, you are correct on that. Forgot about that jobber pack with Taurox and Oxyotl in 2021. In that case, then I expect 5 years max support for TWW3.

[Shield]

The game is consistently in top sellers, with a healthy playerbase. It's not really showing any signs of slowing, and TW hasn't announced any new projects.

I wouldn't worry. In fact, TW:WH3 as a finished product might be refreshing. Not like anyone said Elden Ring got bad because its content cycle is done.

[lethminite]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

@lethminite

Sofia team is actually helping with WH3 now.

That's awesome news.

[BIG E.]

Well, they basicly can't until they ship something else that actually sells.

Right now WH3 is CAs only source of profit pretty much.