Creative Assembly have introduced a launch date of August 13th for A Total War Saga: Troy, with a shock: they’ll give it away free to maintain on the Epic Games Store at launch. It’s changing into an Epic timed unique, see, and the way! The giveaway is just for someday, thoughts. In the same old Epixclusive means, it’ll be on Steam after one 12 months – and Creative Assembly do say this unique is a one-off.
Troy is the second Total War Saga, following 2018’s Thrones Of Britannia. They’re smaller and cheaper side-games, targeted on a extra particular time and place. In this case, it’s the mythic Trojan War. As Alice Bee defined when she took a look at Troy final 12 months, it’s making an attempt to think about a realistic-ish potential historical past for the epic occasions. So no, Achilles most likely gained’t attempt to give a river a kicking.
When Troy launches on the Epic Games Store on August 13th, will probably be free for keepsies when you seize it throughout the first 24 hours. That’s fairly the coup for Epic. Yeah, Sludge Life launched as an Epic freebie final week (and nonetheless is, and is deece) however even a Saga of Total War is a far larger get.
Creative Assembly say Troy “will become available on other digital PC storefronts such as Steam from August 2021.” Troy’s Steam page had stated it might be there in 2020. Creative Assembly had not but offered pre-orders, thoughts, so this example isn’t the identical as final 12 months’s Metro Exodus Epic switcheroo, which Valve declared “unfair to Steam customers”.
Yesterday’s Troy announcement explains that Epic approached them with the supply to pay for the freebie. Creative Assembly say “we’re at a time when we’re looking to invest more into the ongoing development of Total War this felt like an opportunity to really move the franchise forward by getting it in front of more people.” This lets them take tentative steps onto new shops, do the muse work for future adventures past Steam, and, y’know, receives a commission to have a squillion individuals nab their game.
“We currently have no plans for any future games to be Epic exclusives,” they add in an FAQ. “We do want to be more platform agnostic moving forward (this decision is part of that), and we would like future games to be available on the Epic Games Store, but that’s in addition to being available on other platforms such as Steam.”
There are extra downsides. As the devs word, the Epic Games Store doesn’t have mod help, not just like the Steam Workshop. While mod help is “on Epic’s roadmap,” intent doesn’t imply a lot in case your games worse for it. And no, Troy gained’t have cross-store multiplayer between Epic and the eventual Steam launch. Oh and yup, they’re utilizing Denuvo for DRM once more.
