Sega buys the Total War developer, first screens from their upcoming GC/PS2/XB game

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How did this slip by us? http://cube.ign.com/articles/594/594654p1.html

March 9, 2005 - It's official now: SEGA Europe has purchased The Creative Assembly, the developer best known for the innovative Total War strategy series. In a statement today, SEGA of America confirmed the buy and announced that it will publish The Creative Assembly's upcoming console title Spartan: Total Warrior.



The deal is SEGA's first third-party acquisition since the veteran game company dropped its console business to focus exclusively on software development. SEGA of Europe intends to support The Creative Assembly's development of the Total War series as gaming shifts into the next generation of technology.

"This acquisition is direct evidence of SEGA delivering on its strategic objective to strengthen our emphasis on the western market," said Naoya Tsurumi, CEO of SEGA of America and SEGA Europe. "As our first developer acquisition in the west since we became a third party publisher, it clearly demonstrates that we have set our sights on working with the very best talent in the industry."

"We are delighted to have signed with SEGA, a company which we quickly realised shared our creative vision and appreciated our ambition to not only enhance stability but also position ourselves for future growth as a developer," said Tim Ansell, Founder and Managing Director of The Creative Assembly. "SEGA has an extremely impressive plan which will take shape throughout the coming years, and this is something which we were very eager to be a part of."

The Creative Assembly garnered thundering praise recently when Rome: Total War became one of the most acclaimed PC titles of 2004, and one of the most respected strategy titles yet developed. The studio's upcoming action title Spartan: Total Warrior is in development for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube, and slated for September 2005.

Founded by Tim Ansell in 1997, The Creative Assembly operates in the UK and Australia. The company established its reputation from the start with much-loved strategy titles like Medieval: Total War and Shogun: Total War.

Stay tuned for more on the team's new projects as news comes in.

Wow. I hope this is good news. Their new game "Spartan: Total Warrior" looks terrific. Here's the scoop: http://cube.ign.com/articles/594/594607p1.html

March 8, 2005 - In an announcement made late Tuesday evening, the American and European branches of SEGA revealed that the company has partnered with UK developer Creative Assembly for a brand new multiplatform title based on its award-winning Total War line of PC games. Known as Spartan: Total Warrior, the new console-exclusive title will appear on Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox, and Nintendo's GameCube this coming September.



The first title developed by Creative Assembly specifically for home consoles, Total Warrior boasts an emphasis on action rather than strategy. In it, players will take control of a hero that's been thrown knee-deep into war with various armies, mythical beats, and legendary monsters, and he'll have to call upon every skill in the book in order to defeat them. The Creative Assembly and SEGA both had plenty of comments to elaborate:

"All of us at CA are delighted to be working with SEGA, who share our vision of creating genre defining games," said Tim Ansell, Managing Director of The Creative Assembly. "Spartan: Total Warrior is an original gameplay experience based upon dynamic, epic action-combat and we could find no better global partner than SEGA, who wrote the book on console gaming."

"With Spartan: Total Warrior, CA has developed a title that offers both dynamic, real-time combat sequences and epic-sized battles; a combination that has never been technically accomplished on this generation of hardware," said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of marketing, SEGA of America. "This partnership underscores SEGA's strategy to publish more great game content designed to appeal to western gamers."

"The Creative Assembly has delivered outstanding games from day one and Spartan: Total Warrior is another quality title befitting the exceptional standards of the team," Comments Matt Woodley, Marketing Director of SEGA Europe. They've delivered an epic game-play experience and have laid the foundation for what will be another hugely successful brand."

Gameplay details are still rather slim, but SEGA has confirmed that Spartan takes place during the era of the Roman Empire with your character taking up arms against it. Once involved in battle, your alter ego will be just one of dozens of different warriors fighting each other simultaneously, while players have access to various kinds of melee and missile weapons, combos, special moves, blocks, charges, evades, and finishing maneuvers. The animation is a combination of both motion capture and hand-key, and the environments are described as "massive."

And the gorgeous screens:













Awesome. Now all they need to do is make a Samurai: Total Warrior next so that I can wet my pants. :D

You know what'd be even cooler? If they were to port over Shogun Total War to the DS. That'd be so damn cool.