Earlier today, Creative Assembly released their latest studio update, letting their fans know what their various teams are hard at work on. The update also mentioned the fact that Creative Assembly; “is now the biggest studio in the UK – incredibly, we’re more than three times bigger than we were when Alien: Isolation and Total War: Rome II released.” With such a large studio, it seems that the developers have no fewer than three secret projects currently in development!
Creative Assembly’s Three Secret Projects #1: The Next Total War Saga Game
The first of these secret projects is currently in development at Creative Assembly’s Sofia studio. While the specific title of this project is secret, Creative Assembly revealed that it is in fact the next Total War: Saga game, and more information will be coming later this year; “This week we passed milestone one on this game,” says Creative Assembly; “and we’re starting to see more and more of what it will look like. We’re becoming incredibly excited to be able to share more about this project in the coming year – stay tuned.”
The first (and currently only) Total War Saga game is Thrones of Britannia, which launched in May of last year. The game takes place in 9th century Britain, and was built using the engine from Total War: Attila; no doubt seeking to cater to fans of the franchise who are more interested in historical warfare than the recent Warhammer games. The game won “Best Strategy Game” at The Independent Game Developers’ Association Awards last year.
Creative Assembly’s Three Secret Projects #2: Total War: Warhammer 3?
The second secret project is decidedly more secret. Currently in development at the hands of Creative Assembly’s Fantasy Team, it is still in pre-production. The latest update focuses on recent mocap work which the team has been doing; “This month they’ve been slaving over a hot (for February) mocap studio,” says the update; “with some excellent performances by our resident mocap artists now in the can and waiting to have that all-important digital flesh applied to their bones. Or perhaps more bones, or indeed flesh. After all, some things just can’t be legally motion captured…”
This project has been in the works for a while, but Creative Assembly hasn’t formally announced any details. The prevailing theory among fans is that this is Total War: Warhammer 3, and that it will add some of the final Warhammer factions to the game; the Ogre Kingdoms, Chaos Daemons, and perhaps even Chaos Dwarves. For now, however, fans will have to keep speculating.
Creative Assembly’s Three Secret Projects #3: Access Team
The third and final secret project is apparently one that will be announced later in the year. “We’re very excited to share our secret project with you all,” says Creative Assembly; “as it’s a new genre for Total War and has been a real passion project for the developers involved.”
Although fans have almost nothing to go on with this announcement, it may be the most intriguing of the three. Specifically, the statement that this project will be a totally new genre; does that mean that it won’t be a strategy game? That would certainly be different, after all, the studio is best known for its strategy titles. Of course, while Total War has dominated the studio’s work since the early 2000s, the studio has developed other games. They developed Halo Wars 2 in collaboration with Microsoft in 2017, for example, and most notably, they were responsible for developing Alien: Isolation…
