Creative Assembly has announced Total War: Medieval III, a fresh historical entry in the long-running grand strategy series. So long-running, in fact, that this announcement came for the 25th anniversary.
Unfortunately, you shouldn’t expect this game to launch especially soon. Total War: Medieval 3 is currently in early pre-production, but the ambition is to create a game that acts as both a tribute to the classic, and as a revolutionary new entry to push it forward.
The press release reads, “Built as the ultimate medieval strategy sandbox, it will empower players to shape realms, rewrite history, and immerse themselves in the Middle Ages like never before. Combining meticulous historical authenticity with unprecedented player agency, this is more than a sequel, it’s the rebirth of historical Total War.”
Intriguingly, the studio also talked about the game engine that they use, revealing Warcore to be the next evolution of their proprietary engine. This will be the new foundation for games and capabilities to be built around, but it’s also been designed with console gaming in mind. Total War will be coming to PlayStation and Xbox.
Medieval: Total War was the second game in the franchise, arriving in 2002 after the original game’s Japanese setting. It was followed four years later by Medieval II: Total War in 2006, so it will have been two decades between games that have visited this tumultuous period of European history.
To be fair, it’s been a good long while since a full fat Total War had a historical setting. Total War Saga: Troy and Total War: Pharaoh were smaller scale experiences, so the last main game would be 2019’s Three Kingdoms. It’s the fantasy wargaming of Total War: Warhammer 3 that arrived most recently in 2022.
Speaking of which, the support for that game continues – Total War: Warhammer itself celebrating 10 years – with the Lords of The End Times Pack set to unleash four new Legendary Lords into the Immortal Empires campaign in Summer 2026, alongside an End Times update for free.