Total War: Arena, the free-to-play multiplayer-only spinoff of the Total War series, will shut down on February 22nd 2019.
The news was announced in a post by developers Creative Assembly, and it spells a premature end for a game that never even made it to a full release. The statement begins:
“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.”
That probably means that not enough people were playing the game to justify it getting its full release, so Creative Assembly has decided to unplug the life support machine. Although it’s sad to see a game go so early in its lifespan, at least now Creative can put their Arena resources to use on other titles, and it would appear that they will be doing so with the entire of the Arena team. The statement continues:
“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.”
So, there’s some good news at least; the game may be going, but nobody is losing their job. There’s some consolation news for players too, as anybody who has played Total War: Arena is entitled to a freebie, with the statement continuing: “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”. Players will be able to choose from one of the following four pieces of 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)
And that’s not all, Wargaming is offering 30 days of Premium Account for World of Tanks, World of Warships or World of Warplanes for anybody who played 100 or more battles in Total War: Arena’s Open Beta. Also, any players who have spent money in Total War: Arena or bought a starter pack before the Closed Beta started are entitled to receive the equivalent amount to spend in World of Tanks, World of Warplanes or World of Warships. Anybody who has made Premium Shop purchases from August 22nd 2018 to November 22nd 2018 will be fully reimbursed by way of equivalent amounts in World of Tanks, World of Warplanes or World of Warships.
As you’d expect, Microtransactions and the ability to create a new account have now been disabled.
Total War: Arena may be meeting its demise, but that doesn’t spell the end for the Total War series – the next instalment, Total War: Three Kingdoms, will release on March 7th 2019.
Leave a Reply