Compare
Complete Edition and the older releases
Complete Edition is a new Windows release, not a patch that replaces the 2011 game. Steam stopped selling the original as a standalone product on 28 September 2026, but Creative Assembly says existing owners keep the old game, receive any original DLC they were missing, and can still play it.
On this page
- The split in one table
- 2011 editions and 2013 Gold
- Mac, Linux, and the 2023 patch
- What Complete Edition adds
- Owners and the discount window
Original game and Complete Edition
| Original SHOGUN 2 on Steam | Complete Edition | |
|---|---|---|
| First release | Windows, 15 March 2011 | 13 October 2026 |
| Sold alone after 28 September 2026 | No. The store page remains. | Yes. On Steam it also grants the original game and DLC except the Blood Pack. |
| Existing owners | Keep the install and their mods. | Separate purchase. Steam owners get a 75% discount until 12 November 2026. |
| Mods | Steam Workshop mods continue to work on the old game. | Mod.io. Old mods are not compatible. |
| Platforms | Windows, then macOS in 2014 and Linux in 2017. | Windows on Steam app 3846830. Mac and Linux flags are off. |
| Build | The 2011 game, later patched for very high core counts. | Described as a 64-bit upgrade with updated visuals and UI scaling. |
Creative Assembly’s answer to “is Complete Edition replacing the original?” is no. Anyone who wants to buy the original on Steam now buys it as part of Complete Edition. Epic, the Microsoft Store, and GOG sell Complete Edition without that original copy.
What the 2011 and 2013 boxes contained
Wikipedia records four editions at the 2011 launch. The standard edition was the game. The limited edition added the Hattori clan, the historical battle of Nagashino, avatar armour, and a bank of avatar experience. The collector’s edition added an art book and a Takeda Shingen figure in a bamboo box. A grand master’s edition, sold in selected UK and Australian shops, added a bamboo chess set. GameStop pre-orders unlocked the Battle of Kawagoe. Best Buy pre-orders added 1,000 koku at the start of a campaign. None of those physical extras are listed in the 2026 Steam package.
On 5 March 2013 in North America, and on 8 March 2013 in Europe and Australasia, Sega released Gold compilations. The North American Gold set contained the base game, Rise of the Samurai, and Fall of the Samurai. The European and Australasian set added further packs: Dragon War Battle, Hattori, Ikko-ikki, Otomo, Saga, Obama, Tsu, Sendai, Saints and Heroes, and Sengoku Jidai. Wikipedia says that set still omitted the Blood Pack. The European case was a gold-and-black folding box; the North American case was the ordinary one.
Complete Edition is closer in spirit to “campaigns plus DLC” than to the North American Gold set, because the FAQ says associated DLC is included, Blood Pack aside. It is not the same product. Gold was a compilation of the original game. Complete Edition is a new 64-bit build with visual, interface, language, faction, and mod-platform changes, and on Steam it is sold beside a copy of the old game rather than instead of it.
Ports and the long quiet period
Feral Interactive released the original game on macOS on 31 July 2014, including a collection of the additional content. Linux and SteamOS builds of SHOGUN 2 and Fall of the Samurai followed on 23 May 2017. Complete Edition’s Steam record does not repeat those platforms.
Wikipedia notes a long stretch without content patches, then a May 2023 update for the original game: a compiler upgrade aimed at modern hardware, and a crash fix for CPUs with more than 32 logical cores. That note is about the 2011 app. It is not a Complete Edition patch log. The 2026 edition’s own claim to modern hardware is the 64-bit upgrade, the new visuals, the high-resolution interface, ultrawide support in SEGA’s announcement, and the spec floor on the requirements page.
Reception figures in reference articles belong to the old releases. Wikipedia records a Metacritic score of 90 for the 2011 game and 86 for Fall of the Samurai. Those are not scores for app 3846830. Steam’s user-review summary for the new app, checked on 14 October 2026, was Overwhelmingly Negative, 237 positive and 972 negative. The original game’s early sales note in the same Wikipedia article is 600,000 units in Europe and North America by 31 March 2011, which is a launch-window figure, not a lifetime total.
The published difference list
Against the 2011 game, Complete Edition’s own announcements add:
- Updated lighting, shadows, and textures.
- Interface scaling for 1440p and 4K.
- Modernised controls.
- Full Japanese and Chinese voice and text. Steam’s language list also marks several other languages as full audio.
- More than 50 newly playable minor factions. One readable example in the store art is Honma on the Sengoku clan select.
- Mod.io inside the game, and an explicit break with original Workshop mods.
- A 64-bit upgrade.
- Ultrawide support and colourblind options, named by SEGA.
The FAQ does not promise a diplomacy overhaul, a new economy, or balance changes. Comments under the FAQ ask about those things. The post itself does not answer them. This comparison stays with the list above.
If the original game is already on the account
The official site says every Steam owner of SHOGUN 2 automatically receives the 75% discount on Complete Edition from 13 October 2026, 16:00 BST, until 12 November 2026, 16:00 GMT. SEGA’s press text speaks more broadly of “existing owners.” The operational line for Steam is the one that says the discount is automatic for Steam owners.
The free-DLC line is also Steam-specific in the FAQ: current Steam owners are granted original DLC they do not already own. The Blood Pack is excluded from the Complete Edition bundle and from the original copy that a new Steam purchase of Complete Edition includes. Whether that pack is inside the free grant for older accounts is not spelled out in the same sentence. The launch notices say the Blood Pack is not included. This page does not invent a third rule.
Workshop mods stay on the original install. They do not move across. That is the point of keeping both games. Details are on multiplayer and mods, and the pack names are on what’s included.