Creative Assembly announce TOTAL WAR: MEDIEVAL III, confirm another game announcement for next week

Creative Assembly have held a showcase to celebrate twenty-five years of their Total War video game franchise, as well as confirming that two new games are in development.

Alongside new updates and heroes and villains for Total War: Warhammer III, the headline news was the confirmation that Total War: Medieval III is in early development. Medieval: Total War was released in 2002 and Medieval II: Total War in 2006, so this marks the first new game in the sub-series for well over two decades by the time it is released.

Like the previous two games, Medieval III will start in the early medieval period and unfold across centuries, with players taking their kingdom to glory or ruin. The game will apparently focus more on the impact of changing the course of history, with historical events occurring early or later depending on your actions, such as the Reformation or the unification of Germany. This may mark a swing towards the alternate histories created by player actions in games like Crusader Kings III.

The game is "very early" in development, which by Creative Assembly standards might mean two years from release or four or five, so when the game will arrive is unclear. CA have suggested they want player ideas and feedback to be incorporated from much earlier on than is normal in the process, though whether this hints at some kind of eventual Early Access model is unclear.

The game is also being developed on WarCore, a total revamp and rebuild of the existing Warscape engine, which has powered all Total War games since 2009's Empire: Total War. WarCore will allow for the use of vehicles on the battlefield and Havok physics for dynamic building destruction.

Creative Assembly also confirmed an additional game is in development and this will be unveiled with a full trailer at the Game Awards on 11 December (so a week today), where people are also hoping to hear news about Half-Life 3 and other rumoured titles. This additional game is believed, based on leaks, to be either fantasy or science fiction in nature and will represent a radical shift from any game that CA has made previously. There is speculation, fuelled by alleged insider information, that this game will be based on the Warhammer 40,000 or Star Wars IPs, though a 40,000 game would have to compete with next year's Dawn of War IV. In a documentary a few years ago, CA confirmed they had considered strategy games set in the Middle-earth, Witcher and Game of Thrones universes, but those titles are not being seriously rumoured at this time.