Empire: Total War gets March date

By Dan Pearson Published 27 January, 2009

To hit stores on 4th, Steam on 3rd.

SEGA has announced a definite street date of 4th March for 18th-century battlefield strategy title Empire: Total War.

The PC exclusive will be hitting store shelves a day earlier in the US and Canada, when it will also become available via Steam in the rest of the world. Oddly, the North American Steam release will be delayed until the 4th, bringing a nice, rounded sense of parity to proceedings.

The Imperial epic takes the long-running series into the age of steam and sail, a period encompassing the Industrial Revolution, the war of American Independence and the invention of the top hat.

Fans have been clamouring at Creative Assemby's door for a series instalment in the hearty Eighteenth Century for some time now - the era was "the most requested period" to play host to the new title.

There'll be all of the usual grand-scale conflict, with tactical nous bringing home the battlefield bacon, whilst the new naval encounters have got the bedroom admirals polishing their cannons in rapt anticipation. On top of that, expect scurrilous dealings with spies, diplomats, bishops and gentlemanly international cricket fixtures.

Picture of Dan.

About Dan Pearson

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Comments (22) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • magicpanda #1 3 years ago

    Fuck yeah!

  • glottis0 #2 3 years ago

    I wish they'd bring the damn price down on Steam. Steam was £40 last time I looked - you can get a boxed copy for £26. So despite my desire to embrace digital distribution, it's just not a sensible choice for a lot of games.

  • WrongShui #3 3 years ago

    Aye most are cheaper on play than steam.

    Paying for the service eh.

  • makeamazing #4 3 years ago

    No way getting this on steam, this is one that i want a nice lovely box for :)

  • thewolfiv #5 3 years ago

    just buy the disk and register your serial on steam - save money and still have the benefits of steam.

  • glottis0 #6 3 years ago

    @thewolfiv - Awesome, I didn't realise you could do that with 3rd-party games - I thought only valve stuff worked like that.

  • hiddenranbir #7 3 years ago

    Pre-ordered this on amazon a few weeks ago. Special Forces edition!

  • DarkBytes #8 3 years ago

    YES

  • SixFootHalfling #9 3 years ago

    @glottis0

    I think Empire has to be registered with steam to play, and it definitly does for the special edition, as you have to register to download the content

  • KillerMonkey #10 3 years ago

    ^ Steam isn't that bad. Certainly worth going through it for a new TW game imo.

  • UncleLou #11 3 years ago

    You're not buying this because of Steam activation?

    Steam is great, and we should embrace it if they use Steam as a copy protection instead of anything else. So you have to make an account and activate it online - this will take you the best part of 5 minutes. Some people are a bit too fussy for their own good.

  • figgis #12 3 years ago

    Might be the only time I stump up for the special edition of a game.

  • Tyranix #13 3 years ago

    Woo I can't wait ^^ Thankfully it wasn't pushed back too far from its former February release date. The 18th Century is my favourite period in all of history and since I am obsessed with naval combat...yeah, this will be awesome.

  • Grom #14 3 years ago

    "More beneficial for me to steal it"?

    What the hell is that meant to mean? I imagine it's 'more beneficial' to steal any game, since you then always pay fuck all and are just generally a thieving cockend.

    Or have you developed some sort of mind-numbing twisted logic to defend not buying a game, just because it goes against some baseless emo-style terror you have of DRM because you once read Slashdot and got all nerd ragey?

  • UncleLou #15 3 years ago

    They're turning a buyers market into a sellers market taking several of your rights away embarking DRMs and you're applauding it? The critical consumer is truely dead.

    Nonsense. There's the critical consumer, and there's the conservative, dogmatic luddite. Steam friends list, no need to keep the DVD in the drive, option to download it via Steam even if you bought the boxed verison on different PCs far outweigh any disadvantages. So, what's left? No resale. Which isn't really an option for PC games, anyway, let alone for multiplayer ones, regardless of Steam.

  • skillian #16 3 years ago

    Grom, there's nothing wrong with pointing out the moral penalty of piracy, but doing so in such a way does you no favours (piracy = emo?).

    On topic, I'd only ever played a bit of Total War (Rome, I think) around a friend's, but I think this will be my first purchase of the series. It looks fantastic from what I've seen so far.

    Stupid that I can't buy it from Steam at that ridiculous price though - I'll end up paying for pressing, packaging delivery and retailer's cut, then just chuck the box in the bin the minute it comes through the door. All I need is a sequence of 15 characters, it's so silly.

    But this is suposed to be a positive comment. Yay! for more Total War.

  • Grom #17 3 years ago

    Sorry - emo was perhaps the wrong word, but I still think some people have an emotional reaction to DRM beyond what is justifiable by the facts.

    Apologies to any emo readers to whose emotional turmoil I have added.

  • skillian #18 3 years ago

    You wrote this:

    What the hell is that meant to mean? I imagine it's 'more beneficial' to steal any game, since you then always pay fuck all and are just generally a thieving cockend.

    Or have you developed some sort of mind-numbing twisted logic to defend not buying a game, just because it goes against some baseless emo-style terror you have of DRM because you once read Slashdot and got all nerd ragey?

    And then wrote this:

    some people have an emotional reaction to DRM beyond what is justifiable

    Irony asplosion?


    Edited by 2 at 28/01/09 @ 11:52

  • Grom #19 3 years ago

    I'm not reacting to DRM, I'm reacting to pirates, and my emotional reaction is entirely justifiable ;)

  • dingo75 #20 3 years ago

    @anduz:
    Buy the box and download the crack then.
    That way you paid the devs and can play the game without Steam.

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #21 3 years ago

    *Licks pen tip and scribbles down people's names...

  • Matfink #22 3 years ago

    No-one gonna wait and see how bad the bugs are this time (and their scroogey patch policy) ?