Sega hands over Total War: Arena to Wargaming under new publishing label

Developed by turn-based strategy champions The Creative Assembly, Total War: Arena was announced in 2013 as a free-to-play multiplayer-focused instalment to the enduring series. Sega has now announced a partnership with World of Tanks developer Wargaming that sees the latter—under a new and separate label, Wargaming Alliance—take the reigns as Arena’s exclusive publisher.  

Wargaming Alliance’s head honcho, Vladimir Makarychev, notes Arena’s official release is “still a while away”, however The Creative Assembly’s Tim Heaton tells PC Gamer a robust player pool has existed since day one. 

“Total War: ARENA has had a strong, dedicated fan base from the start which we involved closely throughout the early development stages of the game,” he says. “Most of the initial players we invited into the game were from the Total War community, we then started to see growth into wider communities. Now, with the Wargaming Alliance partnership we are able to expand further by reaching out to their substantial subscriber-base and beyond.”

Echoing this idea of exposure, Sega Europe’s president Jurgen Post tells us Wargaming’s “unrivalled expertise in the [free-to-play] market,” has been integral to the collaboration—and Heaton goes as far to say it’s the “perfect match”. He does however underscore the fact The Creative Assembly is “still very much at the development helm”, and while working in close conjunction with Wargaming Alliance, he and his team will  continue to operate from their Horsham UK office.