Update November 8, 2017: whatever Creative Assembly are unveiling, it’s happening at 15:00 GMT today.
The Total War developers announced a livestream on Twitter yesterday. That was after teasing an announcement to do with Rome II, which in turn followed a blog post confirming that one of the older historical games in the series is getting a new “campaign expansion.”
All this historical goodness is thanks in large part to the success of Total War: Warhammer.
We’ll let you know what was announced as soon as possible, but if you’d like to watch live, you can do so below. Again, that’s 15:00 GMT, or 07:00 Pacific (good morning! You’re up early. Nice.)
Update November 6, 2017:the Total War YouTube channel has uploaded a new eight-second clip of Rome II’s logo with cracks running through it.
In the context of last week’s announcement (see below) that an older historical game would get a “campaign expansion,” this is a pretty clear hint that Rome II is the chosen game.
The clip’s title and description are also pretty telling: “is this the end of the Empire? Or just the beginning?” Discussion on the Total War forums seems pretty certain that campaign DLC for Rome II is on the way.
Welcome news? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Original story November 1, 2017:Creative Assembly have published an update on the historical heart of their flagship Total War series of grand strategy games. Next year will be huge for history fans, CA say, and their three historical team leads explain why.
The key announcement is a “campaign expansion” for one of CA’s older games. There’s also a little more detail on the first Total War Saga, and word of encouraging progress on the next main sequence historical Total War game.
That campaign expansion will be “the first time we’ve gone back to a game so long after release,” says game director Maya Georgieva, which is intriguing. As a reminder, Total War: Attila came out in February 2015, and got its last DLC, the Slavic Nations culture pack, a year later. Before that was Rome II in September 2013, and then Shogun II in March 2011.
“There’s a lot of people still playing this particular game,” says Georgieva, but there’s also “a lot more we haven’t even touched in that era yet.” She adds that the new content will be accompanied by a “big free update,” and will open up “lots of exciting future projects if it’s successful,” so there’s another hint at what CA have planned.
Total War Saga director Jack Lusted is up next, teasing an announcement “relatively soon,” though there’s still a while until release. “We’re working on a campaign map that’s the size of Shogun 2,” he says. “And that focus allows us to create greater depth, too. A tighter focus means a higher resolution of detail.”
Speaking of maps, Lusted obliquely acknowledges Redditors who identified a stretch of Irish coastline from the sole, blurry screenshot we saw of his Saga when it was announced. “Maybe we weren’t as obscure with that as we could have been,” he says, suggesting they’re on to something.
Finally, Janos Gaspar, who is helming the nextbighistorical game,reconfirms that it is set in a completely new era. Don’t assume you’ve guessed it right though: he says there are “plenty of eras Total War’s not been to yet,”and downplays previous comments by series boss Mike Simpson about places it would and would not go. Basically, it’s all on the table. He says the new setting brings “a completely different look and feel,”which “means we can explore interesting new concepts while still bringing what makes it ‘Total War’ to the game.”
I’m still guessing World War One.
Here’s the post on the Total War blog.