20th Century Fox trademarks Alien: Isolation for their next game

aliens869

If you didn’t know Twentieth Century Fox has been really trying to push the Aliens brand and really wants to break through into the video game industry. Their latest effort was with SEGA on Aliens: Colonial Marines. Now they’re tradmarking the name “Alien: Isolation” for another game. Who is developing it? Who knows. Could this be that ‘Creative Assembly’ Aliens game?

Even if  Creative Assembly did an Aliens game, would you still want to play it after Colonial Marines?

Creative Assembly and Extra Credits Want to Teach You About Roman History

When I was at this year’s PAX Prime, I tried to see if I could play Total War: Rome II to write up a preview for a genre I’m not terribly great at. After a few seconds it quickly dawned on me that the time I was going to invest wasn’t going to do this game any justice. I’m not a guy who does great at Real Time Strategy, nor did I come from an education system that would span further from Texas history. However, through some of their marketing money, Creative Assembly has teamed up with the folks behind Extra Credits to give you an overview of Roman history through a series of videos starting today on the Punic Wars. If you’re playing the game and don’t understand everything the story of Rome II is telling, this ought to help provide a better understanding, or for people like me, its great to see developers doing some good to go to new efforts just to teach people about history. That and, well, probably to make sure this doesn’t happen again…

Still its great to see efforts like this happen between the two, and its great for SEGA to even allow their marketing money to be used in this form. Be sure to watch the video and stay tuned to the Extra Credits Youtube channel for more on Roman history.

Creative Assembly unboxes Total War: Rome II Collector’s Edition, dog attack sold separately

Total War: Rome II is almost coming out, what better way to show off the new Collector’s Edition of the game than by being attacked by dogs? Well, check out the funny video posted by the boys at Creative Assembly, they are taking the unboxing game to the next level.

According to the video, the collector’s edition will be limited to 22,000 copies, grab yours before their gone!

SEGA says they’re ready for next generation consoles, concern over Wii U sales and more!

JurgenPost
Recently MCV had an interview with SEGA Europe’s COO Jurgen Post where they talked to him about SEGA’s future and their restructuring. If you guys noticed in their last financial statement, the company is doing well now. According to Jurgen Post, SEGA is very prepared for next generation because they have so much invested on the PC market:

” The next-gen console market is exciting and we are following it closely. We have a lot of PC studios, and in that sense you might say we are very prepared. If, as many say, these next-gen machines really are more like PCs than ever then we have a lot to take advantage of in terms of technology. The PC base certainly makes it feel much easier for us.” – Jurgen Post, COO of SEGA Europe

He even talked about porting some RTS titles in the future, stating that even exclusives like Diablo III are jumping ship. I guess we will see. Even though right now the only ‘next generation’ console they are supporting is the Wii U, which has Post a bit concerned.

Mark Strong to play a role of a general in Total War: Rome 2

MarkStrongRome2
Mark Strong is known for playing various villains in movies (Kick-Ass, Green Lantern and Sherlock Homes) and it seems he might continue this typecasted villain role in Total War: Rome 2. He is set to play General Silanus, a power hungry general that will guide you (the player) though the opening chapters of the campaign.

Even though he is mostly known for his villain roles, he did play the voice of Titus in the Warhammer 40k: Space Marine video game. Which is a pretty damn good game and is now published by SEGA (since it was developed by Relic).

You can check out the press release after the break.

Total War: Rome 2: 10 minutes of gameplay


Above is ten minutes of narrated gameplay. This video is showing an ambush, watch as the Romans are chased out.

The above battle is based on a real battle where Germanic tribes happen to ambush and slaughter three Roman legions.  Total War: Rome 2 is set to come out later this year.

SEGA says they have exciting plans for Sonic in the near future

thefutureofsonic
Sometimes people at SEGA just love to tease and those teases sometime excite us. Its almost going to be two years since Sonic Generations came out and that seems like a long time for Sonic games (which used to have almost yearly releases). So Sonic fans ask, where is the next one? VentureBeat spoke to senior director of digital marketing Mike Evans and director of online operations Ethan Einhorn, this is what they teased:

“We’re taking, on the console side, more of a pillar approach. We’re doing some very exciting things with Sonic as a brand in the near future. We’re also very heavily focused on strategy, as you’ve seen with our pickup of [Company of Heroes developer] Relic, as well as what we’re doing with [Total War developer] Creative Assembly. Of course, we’re continuing to do core titles like Aliens: Colonial Marines.”Ethan Einhorn, Director of Online Operations

Are we shocked that SEGA has big plans for their #1 brand? No, but its exciting to see if this new game will be on a next generation system. If you want to see the full interview head over to VentureBeat.

Creative Assembly announces new free-to-play multiplayer game, Total War: Arena

TotalWarArenaLogo
SEGA and Creative Assembly have just announced their new game they have been teasing, Total War: Arena. The game is a ‘Multiplayer Online Battle Arena’, the game seems like it is aimed to compete against titles such as Leagues of Legends and DOTA 2. It doesn’t mean that the title is a MOBA type game, unlike those games, in this game you will have 10 vs 10 based battles.

Also unlike those MOBA type games, each player in this game will be able to control armies and command over 500 men in 3 units. The game has also been confirmed to be free-to-play. The game will be supported with add-on packs that will change the battlefield, even saying they will introduce stuff from different time periods.

Games Workshop looking for more publishers and developers to make Warhammer based games

warhammer_rules_video_8th_edition

We have reported many times on SEGA picking up the IP license to Warhammer, but today Games Workshop announced that Slitherine, a video game publisher, is creating a real-time strategy game based on the Warhammer 40k universe.

So who else is making Warhammer titles?

  • Siltherine – We talked about above, they are creating a RTS game based in the Warhammer 40k universe. 
  • Zattikka – Announced last week that they will be creating social games based on the Warhammer IP.
  • Full Control – They acquired the Space Hulk license.
  • EA – They have created Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and are developing  Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes.
  • Rodeo Games – Creating a game called Warhammer Quest.
  • No Mad Games – Picked up the license to develop games based on Talisman.
  • SEGA – SEGA, which own the studio Relic, responsible for some of the most popular Warhammer 40k games. Also rumored is that Creative Assembly is making a game based on the Warhammer license.

Apparently Games Workshop is open to new ideas and said they will be going to trade shows to meet potential developers for games. With quite the list of developers already having Warhammer games in the works, even our blue and true SEGA, and the licensee looking for more games means that he market is going to be filled with Warhammer based games. Is this good? All I hope is that the games are great. The Warhammer universe is expansive and if they can cover different parts in different style games, they got my money.

SEGA and Creative Assembly partner with Games Workshop to create Warhammer games

SEGA’s Total War series is the king of PC war strategy games. Warhammer is the king of tabletop miniature war strategy games. So could Creative Assembly, the developer of the Total War series, developing Warhammer video games be a match made in heaven? SEGA seems to think so! Today, SEGA has announced a partnership with Games Workshop, the company behind Warhammer. The SEGA blog laid out the deal, stating that a “new high-calibre development team has been set up at Creative Assembly’s UK studio to work alongside the existing Total War, Alien IP and Mobile teams on the first Warhammer title in the deal, scheduled to launch from beyond 2013”. Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly promised “we’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before. We’re bringing those 25 years of experience and expertise in extremely high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that videogamers will absolutely love”.

Creative Assembly’s Rome II will be ‘Total War’s Saving Private Ryan’


Creative Assembly has been making some of the best strategy games on PC for years, but they want to do more with Rome II. They want to add Spielberg level of drama. It has been confirmed that Total War: Rome II will be the biggest and most detailed Total War game yet. So anything extra is awesome. Studio says it really took inspiration from the film Saving Private Ryan and wants to make the players care about the characters on screen.

Creative Assembly says SEGA’s restructuring is exciting and they are already seeing benefits


Creative Assembly has been going on a make a sequel to everything frenzy
, now they are speaking out about SEGA’s recent restructuring. So what do they think about all the big changes and people losing their jobs? Their excited…

“It’s a tight family at Sega, so any talk of restructuring and refocusing is always a difficult time in any business and we’re always kind of mindful of that. But as a studio we’re growing to beyond 200 people at the moment and we’re still hiring, and we’re still looking to expand and we’ve got a number of really intense and interesting products on the horizon, both Total War and non-Total War and the refocussing at Sega on the distinct brand IPs, whether that’s Sports Interactive or Sonic or Aliens or Total War itself is really exciting for us as a studio, because we’re already seeing evidence of that improved support, that idea of really getting behind those IPs and really making the most of them.” – Brand director Rob Bartholomew

Creative Assembly does make a point, its always good for a studio to get more support. If only SEGA West cared this much about games like Anarchy Reigns and Rhythm Theft, right?

Rome 2: Total War Officially Announced (Awesome Live Action Trailer)

Rome 2: Total War has been officially announced! Rome 2 has been the most anticipated game in the Total War series since the original Rome released in 2004. The budget for Rome 2 is said to be 40% larger then that of Shogun 2.

I began playing the Total War series with the original Shogun: Total War but it was Rome that really grabbed me and made me a fan of this series. Needless to say Rome 2 cannot come soon enough.

Rome 2 will release for PC in 2013. P.S check out that fantastic live action trailer!

*UPDATE* Rumor: SEGA shutting down SEGA Europe, last console game to be shown at E3

UPDATE: Community Manager at Sega of America Clumsyorchild and Studio director at Sports Interactive Miles Jacobson are tweeting that these rumors are false.

Wow. It’s that time of year; E3 is around the corner, and that means it’s time to see some  rumors. This one doesn’t sound too outrageous due to all the lay offs that happened a few months back. Not only that, SEGA Europe doesn’t have community managers. Does this mean SEGA Europe will be shutting down and that SEGA will stop making retail games? The rumor states that SEGA will focus on mobile and tablet games. It also says their last big AAA title will be announced at E3, and will be the Creative Assembly’s unannounced Alien game.