Developers Creative Assembly are celebrating 25 years of the Total War franchise and have released a video detailing their upcoming projects. Since 2000, Total War has been a juggernaut in the strategy genre, selling over 48 million copies across all of the games to date.
This year marks two and a half decades since Shogun: Total War appeared on PC, so naturally, the developers wanted to celebrate with fans. Taking to YouTube, the team dropped an hour-long presentation announcing two new games, an expansion and a new game engine. We’ve embedded their presentation, but if you keep scrolling, we’ve summarised each of the announcements for you.
Before we get into the updates, let’s talk about the end of the presentation. Creative Assembly pulled the “And one more thing,” announcing that the next new game will be unveiled at The Game Awards on 11th December. We’ll report back once we have the details. Now, on with the bits we can talk about.
Total War: Warhammer III – Lords of the End Times DLC
Coinciding with the series’ 10th year, the Total War: Warhammer III – Lords of the End Times DLC will unleash four new Legendary Lords into the Immortal Empires campaign. Due for release in Summer 2026, the first Lord announced, Nagash. He is a necromancer who returns to reclaim his lost power and drown the world in undeath.
Coupled with the DLC will be a free End Times Update. Players will face a campaign experience transformed, with apocalyptic scenarios and cataclysmic events that push the boundaries of strategy and survival. And to crown this update, a new Legendary Lord will rise, ready to leave their mark on the cataclysm to come.
Total War: Medieval III
Total War: MEDIEVAL III has been a long-awaited game for fans. Creative Assembly looks set to return to the franchise’s historical roots, although players will have some time to wait as the game is in early pre-production. A short teaser trailer was released just to confirm the game is in development.
According to the developers, Total War: MEDIEVAL III has been built as the ultimate medieval strategy sandbox. The game aims to empower players to shape realms, rewrite history, and immerse themselves in the Middle Ages like never before. Historical authenticity has been considered, and players will have more freedom than ever before. There’s no word on when the game will release.
The Warcore Game Engine
Creative Assembly took some time during their presentation to talk about their new game engine. Total War’s proprietary engine might not be an interesting subject for most, but it does shed insights into what developers can create. The new engine provides a suite of tools that allow gameplay to be more immersive, dynamic, and responsive.
While we wait to see what this means for future games, the development team confirmed that the Warcore engine will enable future games to be released on PlayStation and Xbox. This will bring a whole new audience to the Total War franchise going forward.
