As tick follows tock, another video game has been delayed until 2022, with Sega and Creative Assembly confirming that they need a little while longer to complete Total War: Warhammer 3.
Total War: WARHAMMER III will now release in early 2022.
We know this is disappointing, but the extra time means we can accomplish more than we could if we rushed to release this year.
We won’t be staying quiet however, join us tomorrow for the global reveal of Grand Cathay… pic.twitter.com/R4GdObAs9P
— Total War (@totalwar) September 13, 2021
The statement from CPO Rob Bartholomew posted to Twitter reads:
With nearly a decade of development on the Total War: Warhammer trilogy behind us, it feels surreal to see its culminating chapter so close to release. While it’s tempting to rush to the finish lilne as it comes into view, we have made the decision to give it a little more time by moving the launch of Total War: Warhammer III from 2021 to early 2022.
The wait won’t be much longer, and we’ll have plenty of new information for you in the meantime. The new date will make for a stronger release and the best first step into a new era for Total War: Warhammer. We don’t consider this release the end of our trilogy, but the start of years of content and support as we continue to bring the jaw-dropping scale of Games Workshop’s fantasy universe to Total War.
Thanks for you patience and support,
While there’s no mention of the challenges of game development over the last year and a half, it’s almost certain that working from home has had some part to play in the delay of the game – though you’d expect that Sega and CA had planned their development roadmaps with that in mind. This game, and these companies are far from the only ones struggling to meet their release window at this point, with the bulk of Warner Bros. planned 2021 lineup and an awful lot of Sony’s first party PS5 games also sliding out of this year and into the next. As always, it’s generally better to delay a game for a few more months to refine and polish than to rush it out the door.
Announced back in February, Total War: Warhammer III will feature a new grand campaign, tasking you with saving or exploiting a dying god, with each race having a different journey through the Chaos Realm that builds up to an endgame to decide the fate of the world.
The first Total War: Warhammer was centred around the Old World (a fantasy representation of Europe), while Total War: Warhammer II looked to the lands to the West where the High Elves had retreated to, leaving the eastern reaches of the Warhammer world as unexplored territory for Warhammer III to explore. This was the plan all along, of course, with Creative Assembly embarking on a trilogy to explore these different realms. The surprise, perhaps, is that it’s taken this length of time. The first game arrived in May of 2016, and followed in September 2017 by the sequel. It’s now going to be approaching a 4 year wait for the third instalment.
We went hands on with a preview of Total War: Warhammer 3 a little while ago, playing as Kislev as they stepped into the realm of Khorne in the new Survival battle mode. We said:
All in all, it’s a fun twist on the classic style of Total War battling. While it’s called ‘Survival’, in truth you’re alternately defending and attacking, going from a push forward to a capture point to setting up defences and choosing where to spend your precious Supplies.
Source: press release
