While Creative Assembly continues refining their Total War series of single-player, campaign-focused strategy games, they began working on a multiplayer off-shoot in 2017 with the help of Wargaming.net known as Total War: ARENA. From closed Alpha to open Beta, the game has been under development with feedback from its pool of players since last September. Unfortunately, after a year of testing the teams at Creative Assembly and Wargaming have decided that the game wasn’t meeting their expectations.
You can interpret this statement in a few different ways. One, the game simply wasn’t fun or engaging for players and the time/budget for the team has reached its end. Or two, the “expectation” was to make a killing on microtransactions which players just aren’t generating. The cynic in me is inclined to go with #2 as these things usually come down to profit. Nevertheless, the team is keeping the game running for a few more months, disabling new registrations and cash purchases, and even offering some generous parting gifts in return. You can read the full statement below.
It is my unfortunate responsibility to inform you that Total War: ARENA will cease live operations [on] February 22, 2019.
ARENA has been on a long journey, and we are thankful to everyone who joined us. We have learned so much during the development of ARENA and we have grown incredibly close with the community and involved you deeply into our development process. It has been an absolute privilege to work with you all on this project, but unfortunately the results of ARENA Open Beta Test did not meet all our expectations.
I would like to take a moment to thank the ARENA Team, who have poured their heart and soul into this game’s development and are just as disappointed by this as you.
For those of you wondering about the team, they will all continue working on Total War, sharing their experience and learnings from ARENA. ARENA’s technological advancements will continue to be part of Total War development going forward.
To you, the players and community, I have been inspired by your passion, your commitment and your continued valuable insight. Your input and encouragement have been instrumental to the game’s development. I cannot emphasize enough how much we have enjoyed working and playing with you all, and I know that we will greatly miss speaking with you online, debating your feedback, and fighting alongside you on the battlefield.
As a thank you for playing ARENA the team of Creative Assembly is offering a free piece of Total War content to all players of ARENA on the Wargaming Game Center. You can choose one of these 4 pieces of Total War content:
Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition
Hannibal at the Gates (Total War: ROME II DLC)
Age of Charlemagne (Total War: ATTILA DLC)
Grim and the Grave (Total War: WARHAMMER DLC)To claim this offer, please look at the in-game news (live now) or check out the FAQ below.
I’ll have the date added to the Watch List calendar and a page for the game up on the site soon.
Thanks to Dead Game News on Twitter for pointing us to the news