Total War Saga: Troy, which was first announced back in September of 2019, is set to be the third entry in Creative Assembly’s “Total War Saga” series and its largest yet. The highly-anticipated historical strategy title was due for a 2020 release, and the studio has now announced its release date. However, the news has come along with a more contentious announcement; that the game will be a one-year exclusive for the Epic Games Store.
Total War Saga: Troy is a One-Year Epic Exclusive
Total War Saga: Troy will officially release on the 13th of August, later this year. However, despite Steam being Total War’s sole platform of choice for years, the title will instead be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for one year. However, there is an interesting addition; the game will actually be completely free to download and keep on its launch day for a 24 hour-window. According to Creative Assembly, the obvious loss of sales revenue due to this will be covered by Epic itself, so that the studio doesn’t actually take a loss.
Alongside the announcement, and likely anticipating many disappointed fans, Creative Assembly published a detailed blog post explaining the decision. For starters, the studio confirms that they have no plans to ever release another exclusive title in this fashion; fans should consider this a one-off. Secondly, the deal is only a one-year exclusivity contract. As such, Total War Saga: Troy will eventually come to Steam sometime in the summer of 2021. According to Creative Assembly, the decision to make Troy an Epic exclusive wasn’t easy. However, they made it because they think that it will be better for their fans in the long run.
Creative Assembly’s Reasoning & Fan Response
“This deal gives us a great way to try out other platforms, such as Epic,” writes the studio; “to see what works for us and what doesn’t. 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 opportunity allows expansive back-end infrastructure development that will allow us to expand into multiple stores. That means we can have more resources, push ourselves further, be more creative, make more Total War. We’re always looking to evolve and improve on our games and this deal gives us a lot of ways to do that – as we said, fresh perspectives, money that we’ll be putting back into the studio, new ways to expand.”
Of course, the decision has caused upset among a portion of the franchise’s fan-base. The game’s recent gameplay reveal, for example, was barraged with dislikes on YouTube. However, Creative Assembly’s transparency about their reasoning, and the free giveaway, seems to have won over the majority. Perhaps the most enduring criticism of the decision is the lack of mod distribution support on the Epic Games Store; Total War has a very active mod community, after all. However, the game will still be moddable, and Creative Assembly states that; “our aspiration is to ensure Troy has parity with other modern Total War games with regards to mod support, and we are working on delivering this as soon as possible.”