Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a very political story, and to cater to this authenticity, the Total War team made significant changes to how diplomacy plays out. So it's great to see that audience, which we otherwise haven't had a lot of engagement with, are really pleased by what we have offered them."Ĭhina has been the major market for Total War: Three Kingdoms It's doing the right thing and finding out what makes that IP or that era magical, and offering that up to the player and trying to make them proud and interested. There's a magic ingredient of Total War that the dev team applies really consistently and with passion, and it's that authenticity. It's about getting the detail right and really showing a love for the source material. "It's a fantastic testament to some of the values of Total War. "We have seen some really lovely review quotes from Chinese journalists, who are talking about how it's one of the more remarkable Three Kingdom games they've seen, and how it's impressive because it comes from a Western studio," Bartholomew adds. In addition to the subject matter, Creative Assembly has been eager to get the game in front of Chinese influencers and journalists, to prove that the game is accurate and authentic to the Three Kingdoms story. With Three Kingdom, that Romance of the Three Kingdoms subject matter is obviously doing a lot to help us along with that." It's just now that we're starting to reach those guys with our products, and they're putting money down and engaging with us much more. "We know that Total War has had a big following in China for a great many years. And it's definitely hovering around in that Top Six collection of territories that we have for all of our games that we're selling at the moment. We're now at a point where China is absolutely the most major market for Three Kingdoms. But China, in particular, has dramatically moved up through the market share rankings for our titles over the last four or five years. We know that Steam is growing significantly in those territories, and Steam is obviously a really important partner for us. we have seen them grow as markets over the last few years we have released titles. He continues: "Certainly Korea and China in particular. "We know that Steam is growing significantly in those China and Korea, and we tend to grow when Steam grows." "A huge part of our pre-order population has been those Chinese fans, who either played and like Total War already and are excited for the subject matter, or it's a whole new audience of Chinese fans coming to the franchise for the first time." "China as a market - as you might imagine - has kind-of gone crazy for us," Bartholomew says.
Creative Assembly's bigger Total War games in recent years has been around its fantasy Warhammer sub-series.īut the biggest driver of this new Total War's success has been China, perhaps unsurprising when you consider its Three Kingdoms subject matter. Outside of standalone expansion Total War Attila and spin-off Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, this is the first mainline Total War history title since Rome II back in 2013. Part of that has been down to the demand in Western territories for a new major historical Total War. And that's down to the great reviews we've had, which has certainly spiked interest, but it has been trending up for quite a long time now." I am really pleased to say that Total War: Three Kingdoms has had the highest pre-orders of any Total War to-date. "We have always done really well, since Rome II, on our pre-order numbers. "It's been really good," says Rob Bartholomew, Chief Product Officer at Creative Assembly. And yesterday, the game broke the IP's concurrent player record on Steam. Total War: Three Kingdoms is breaking records.Īhead of its launch yesterday, it was already the most pre-ordered Total War game of all time.