A love of the battles of the past has been the foundation of developer Creative Assembly’s success, so it’s nice to see that the studio is taking care of its own history too.
As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for Total War, four classic games in the series have joined the GOG Preservation Program, ensuring they remain available for sale and playable on modern machines for the foreseeable. The full list is:
All four come complete with their expansions, and even better, they’re currently available at a big discount on their already cheap prices—Rome is 50% off, Shogun is 75% off, and both Medievals are 80% off, making them only a few dollars each.
That’s not all, either. Four more recent Total Wars are also on their way to GOG “soon”:
Though this move does serve to draw attention to the frankly unsightly way Total War’s naming convention has flipped over the years, otherwise it’s great to see. At a time when games are being shut down and withdrawn from sale in some cases less than a year after release, game preservation is a more important topic than ever—and big studios like Creative Assembly absolutely should be throwing their weight behind it.
Of course, the studio isn’t only looking backwards—during its 25th anniversary showcase yesterday, it announced that Total War: Medieval 3 is in the works, as well as revealing some apocalyptic new DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3. Series fans are eating good this week.