Remember Total War: Arena, the free to play strategy title developed by The Creative Assembly and published worldwide by Wargaming Alliance in partnership with Sega? Though the open beta launched in February 2018, the title will cease operations on February 22nd, 2019 at 10 PM GMT. This is due to the title not meeting expectations for either the developer or publisher.

In an official post, Joshua Williams, Creative Assembly developer communications, stated, “It has been an absolute privilege to work with you all on this project, but unfortunately the results of ARENA Open Beta Test did not meet all our expectations.” The in-game shop will still be accessible, allowing players to purchase Premium Units and Premium Time for Gold, along with converting XP into Free XP and Gold into Silver. However, players will not be able to make any purchases from the Premium Shop.

Any purchases that were made from August 22^nd to November 22^nd will be fully reimbursed in other Wargaming titles. If you’ve played over 100 matches in the game, then you’re eligible for a month of Wargaming Premium, completely free. Gold, along with premium time, can also be transferred over to other Wargaming titles like World of Tanks, World of Warships, or World of Airplanes. You have until December 22^nd to decide which game to transfer over to.

If that weren’t enough, those played the game will receive free Total War content from The Creative Assembly. The titles mentioned include:

• Total War: MEDIEVAL 2 – Definitive Edition
• Hannibal at the Gates (Total War: ROME 2 DLC)
• Age of Charlemagne (Total War: ATTILA DLC)
• Grim and the Grave (Total War: WARHAMMER DLC)

The Creative Assembly’s free to play take on their most popular franchise, Total War Arena, is now in closed beta, starting today. Total War Arena is a team based strategy game, that should manage to appeal to the MOBA market.

The launch of the closed beta also coincides with a significant update, called Fury of Arminius, which adds a new faction, a new Commander and a new map. These are the Barbarians, Arminius, and a map called Rubicon, which is also notable for adding Arena’s very first river crossing. With the Barbarians, two new unit orders have also been made available, Frenzied Charge and Harass, which can be used to initiate combat, as well as exit it.

This, plus the entire look of the UI has also been overhauled- players who see the game for the first time in action will really like what they see here, as the previous UI wasn’t exactly the best in the world.

You can sign up for the closed beta at the Total War: Arena website.

Total War: Arena, the free to play spin off of the Total War series of strategy games by The Creative Assembly and Sega, was announced a while back, but today marks the first time that we get to look at it. As you watch it, keep 9in mind that the footage is all alpha, so it may not necessarily be representative of what the final game is like.

It appears to be a very unique take on MOBAs, in the same line as League of Legends or DOTA 2, but with an unmistakable Total War feel and aesthetic. It seems to be using multiple elements and design cues from the Total War games, as it pits ten players on each team against each other in frenetic multiplayer battles.

Total War: Arena launches later this year on Windows PCs. Those interested in going hands on with the game for themselves can sign up on the official website to join the game’s closed beta. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

Total War: Arena was announced as a Free-to-Play title at GDC last week by Creative Assembly. Creative Assembly stated that the game requires to have a big player base in order for the game to be cost-free, so said leader designer James Russell.

Free-to-Play games scare people because some games end up being ‘pay-to-win’ instead due to micro-transactions that break the balance of the game’s mechanics. ‘pay-to-win’ usually ends up giving players who spend money the upper edge when it comes to competitive play or difficulty of the game as opposed to those who don’t spend a dime.

However, Russell has reassured that their free to play model isn’t ‘pay-to-win’ and that they’re being extremely careful with micro-transactions. “Fundamentally if we want to take multiplayer to the next level we need a massive userbase,” he said. “One reason for that is to make matchmaking better. Matchmaking is faster and you get into battles quicker the more players you have. Because we want these team-based battles – up to 10 versus 10 – it needs a huge player population.”

“The first is the reason why we’re doing this is to make this great multiplayer experience…to have a player population on a different level,” said Russell. “What I should emphasise on the sort of monetisation philosophy that we want to follow is that we really want to focus on what we call ‘accelerators’. So we could have loads of premium content, consumables that help you win battles, but that is not what we want to focus on.”

“What we want to focus on is accelerators that help, let you level-up your character faster so you get to high-level content more quickly,” he added. “Just to be really clear: our intention is to make the vast majority of content available to everyone for free as long as they earn it. The focus of monetisation is really around enhancing the speed at which you get access.”

Source – Edge

Total War: Arena will the developer’s first title in the F2P market and will benefit from both a decade of experience and expertise creating the Total War series, as well as rely on the brand power that that name represents. After all, all of Creative Assembly’s Total War games have been major hits.

This one, however, won’t go for simple strategy. It will reportedly offer players the chance to play as history’s “greatest commanders” in team battles with elements from real time strategy and massive online battle arena games. Sounds like a good way to cater to every possible segment.

Games can head here to learn more about the closed beta tests for Total War: Arena. And rest assured, given the vision Creative Assembly is pushing, it’ll need as much help as it can get.