This opportunity allows expansive back-end infrastructure development that will allow us to expand into multiple stores. It allows us to get a feel for the development required to expand to other platforms, and it’s relatively risk-free for you, too, as the game’s available for free when claimed in the first 24 hours. This deal gives us a great way to try out other platforms, such as Epic – to see what works for us and what doesn’t. Long term, we want to expand where players find Total War. In fact, we want to get our games onto as many stores as possible. For Total War’s 20th birthday, that felt like an opportunity too good to pass up.Īs mentioned, and like others in the industry, a key reason for exploring other digital stores is that we don’t want to be limited just to Steam. Secondly, Epic were paying for our players to have our latest release free on day one. First we’re at a time when we’re looking to invest more into the ongoing development of Total War this felt like an opportunity to really move the franchise forward by getting it in front of more people. However, ultimately we considered two things. It was a difficult decision, and you can be assured that there were a lot of differing opinions in the studio, and a lot of discussions about it – which largely focussed on what it would mean for you, the players.

That’s not to say that we immediately signed on the dotted line, or that money was the only reason that we did this (it’s not!).

Epic approached us and asked if TROY could be an Epic exclusive, as part of a commercial deal. So now that’s out the way, here’s a little more backstory. TROY seemed like a good game to try this out with, especially as pre-orders aren’t live on Steam yet, so no one’s already put money into a store they’ll have to wait 12 extra months for it to appear on.

We’ve always said that Saga titles allow us to experiment, and this is an experiment on a grand scale. Right now, this is a one-time, one-year exclusive deal for TROY. This is part of that and in principal we’d like future Total War titles to be simultaneously available, from launch day, on as many store fronts as possible. As a business that means putting Total War onto new platforms so that it can reach more players. As developers we truly value our existing fans, but at the same time we want to reach new audiences and have as many people as possible experiencing the thrill of Total War for themselves. “First of all: this is an opportunity for TROY specifically, and we have no plans for future games to be Epic exclusives.

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