Sega and The Creative Assembly unveiled major additions to the iconic Total War franchise, including Total War: Medieval III.
During its 25th anniversary showcase, Creative Assembly also unveiled the expansion Total War: Warhammer III – Lords of the End Times, and Warcore – the next evolution of its game engine.
Alongside all of this, a third title was teased and will be revealed at The Game Awards on December 11. With more than 48.3 million copies sold, Total War is one of the most established and critically acclaimed series in real-time strategy gaming. A drive for historical authenticity and superb gaming quality has helped establish the franchise as one of the most successful PC games of all time. From Shogun: Total War to the Warhammer fantasy titles, the series has always inspired players to take one more turn, said Kevin McDowell, franchise content director at Creative Assembly, in the showcase.
Total War: Medieval III
Total War: Medieval III ushers in the long-awaited return to the franchise’s historical roots.
Now in early pre-production, this next chapter is both a tribute to its legendary predecessors and a bold revolution for the series. Built as the ultimate medieval strategy sandbox, it will empower players to shape realms, rewrite history, and immerse themselves in the Middle Ages.
Combining meticulous historical authenticity with unprecedented player agency, this is more than a sequel; it’s the rebirth of historical Total War, Creative Assembly said. The company showed a cinematic of the rulers who will clash in the game, asking fans, “How will you make history?”
Pawel Wojs, game director for Medieval III, has been playing the games for 25 years and he joined Creative Assembly in 2005. He said the franchise was born from a deep love of history. It’s a game where you don’t just live history but rewrite it, he said.
“We know that same passion for history lives in the roots of our community,” Wojs said. “It’s a game we have been dreaming of for a very long time.”
He said the game is in early preproduction. It’s a tribute to past games and a “bold step forward,” Wojs said.
The firm will take fans on the development journey with it, in a transparent way. Leif Walter, creative director for Medieval III, and Luke Holmes, senior game designer on Medieval III, spoke in the showcase. Walter, who joined in 2016, said it was exciting but intimidating too.
“This is our magnum opus,” Walter said. “Expectations are really high.”
Holmes has a background in medieval history. The vision for the game will be about rewriting history, like forming the nation of Germany earlier than happened in fact, Walter said. It’s not just about “painting the map your color.” It’s about how the world speaks back to the player and reacts to the player’s moves.
Holmes said it is 12th to 15th century in the medieval period, but the start date hasn’t been set yet. It has big names like Richard the Lionheart, the Mongols, and events like the Crusades and the plague.
“It’s a rich and vibrant period,” Holmes said. “It’s a chaotic world where rulers are trying to establish some order on it.”
Total War: Warhammer III — Lords of the End Times
Coinciding with the series’ 10th year, the Lords of The End Times Pack unleashes four new Legendary Lords into the colossal Immortal Empires campaign experience in Summer 2026. Creative Assembly is working with Games Workshop, owner of the Warhammer franchise. You help determine the fate of the world by joining the forces of Order, Chaos or the Undead in The End Times, or the Warhammer apocalypse.
The first to be revealed is the great necromancer, Nagash, who returns to reclaim his lost power and drown the world in undeath.
These new lords also herald the arrival of the free End Times Update. Taking inspiration from the lore, players will face a transformed campaign experience, 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.
This isn’t the end for Total War: Warhammer, as Creative Assembly said the series is far from over.
The Warcore game engine
Building on 25 years of strategy innovation, Warcore is the next evolution of Total War’s proprietary engine.
Total War is a real-time strategy game where you can zoom out to see your whole army in battle, or zoom in to see individual soldiers fighting in 3D. The cut scenes are created in-engine, rather than as video cinematics. It’s a graphics masterpiece in that way, and it also allows you to move your armies around on a strategic map between cities and nations. The game engine is at the heart of this visual feast, and it makes it one of my favorite historical war game series of all time.
The engine is the toolbox of the game devs, rendering graphics and the system for core gameplay and animation features, said Ellie Koorlander, technical art director. Roberto Geroli, core technology director, said it was time to level up the engine and Koorlander said it has evolved since 2009.
“We wanted to upgrade the type of visuals you could see at the same time. VFX, characters, massive battlefields. Total War games are rendering so much at the same time. We had to rethink the techniques we used to render that stuff because we wanted to upgrade it everywhere,” Koorlander said. “When you see projectiles, they will be high fidelity. We can get crisper projectile visuals.”
Buildings will be dynamically destructible and you can use that in gameplay to get to different paths through a map. Battle AI takes advantage of reinforcements and other capabilities as well. The campaign will be modular, so there can be custom experiences, and campaign AI will make better strategic decisions as well. Animation behaviors can be layered with more variety and fidelity. Vehicles can do things like stafing. It’s more visceral and realistic with dismemberment — blood and gore.
As the most advanced technological foundation in the franchise’s history, it empowers developers with a suite of tools that allows for gameplay to be more immersive, dynamic and responsive than ever before. Designed to evolve over time, it will continue to unlock new capabilities, ensuring the franchise stays at the cutting edge of strategy gaming for years to come.
In a franchise first, it also enables future games to be released on PlayStation and Xbox, welcoming a new generation of commanders to the scale, immersion, and tactical mastery that defines Total War.
Tune into The Game Awards on December 11
To round off the anniversary celebrations, a surprise third game will be revealed at The Game Awards on December 11.
This title will be Total War’s next major release and represents one of the most ambitious projects in the franchise’s history, marking the beginning of an exciting new era. I’m going to be there.
Vice President of Total War, Roger Collum had this to say about the anniversary: “It’s incredible to think Total War is 25 years old. We’re extremely grateful that we get to make games that our community gets to play for decades, and without them, we wouldn’t be here. This year was a moment where all Total War fans, old or new, historical or fantasy, could come together and celebrate the exciting next chapter in our story. Here’s to 25 more years.”
Earlier today, Total War also launched several other exciting new products and initiatives:
- Tides of Torment for Total War: Warhammer III is now available, welcoming three new Legendary Lords to the High Elves, Norsca and Slaanesh races. [
- Total War: Warhammer III’s colossal Immortal Empires campaign is now available for free to Warhammer I & II players, allowing them to experience one of the grandest campaigns in strategy gaming.
Founded in 1987, Creative Assembly is a European games developer, creator of the multi-million selling Total War franchise, which spans history and fantasy, and the critically acclaimed tension and thrill of Alien: Isolation.