When a Three Kingdoms game comes out I kind of look at it like EA and football projects: I just assume that Koei Tecmo did it. But naturally that’s not always the case, and Sega/Creative Assembly really cleaned up with Total War: Three Kingdoms.
The long and storied series started all the way back in the year 2000, but Three Kingdoms is absolutely smashing sales records. Not only that but people are playing it, as Steam has recorded over 160,000 concurrent users. Gamesindustry.biz caught up with Creative Assembly CPO Rob Bartholomew to shed some light on how it all happened.
Bartholomew notes that although the company has “always done really well since Rome II” when it comes to pre-orders, Three Kingdoms is now the most successful game to date. He credits this partly because of fans’ appetite for historical simulations, which they’ve been getting away from in recent years while focusing on the Warhammer universe. China, of course, is also a factor.
Evidently China has “kind of gone crazy” for Three Kingdoms, as Bartholomew puts it, and notes that “Korea and China in particular” have grown “over the last few years” as markets. He further clarifies that “China, in particular, has dramatically moved up through the market share rankings for our titles over the last four or five years. We’re now at the point where China is absolutely the most major market for Three Kingdoms.”
We also have an update on how the company is growing, and Creative Assembly is now at a staggering 560 employees spanning two countries. It’s crazy to think this mostly grand strategy studio has found this much success, especially when they venture out of their comfort zone into projects like Alien: Isolation. They’re going to be around for a long while, and have multiple unannounced projects as of May 2019.
Bartholomew sheds some light on how he and his team pull this off, stating, “The effort required to maintain AAA standards in the current industry is tough. It does take more investment and it takes longer to do. The way that we just keep Total War coming out, and keep fulfilling that demand from players for more stuff, is that we do have these staggered teams.”
How Total War conquered China to break franchise records [Gamesindustry.biz]
Source: Destructoid Total War: Three Kingdoms sold best in China