After 19 years, Total War: Medieval 3 is in development at Creative Assembly. But don’t get too excited, because there's still quite a bit to go before we'll get to play the long-awaited historical strategy game. One of the studio bosses is relatively confident it'll arrive before The Elder Scrolls 6, though, even if he'd rather be playing that first.
In a round-up post on the official forums, Roger Collum, vice president of the Total War series, speaks about the announcement of Medieval 3, and tempers expectations for a release window. "We know it's going to be a few years (I'm pretty sure we'll still beat Elder Scrolls VI to market – please Bethesda accept the challenge for all our sake – I need it!)," he says, jokingly, "and there's no amount of sugarcoating to escape that fact, but we really want to make it something worth waiting for – and with your support, it will be."
Right now, it's anyone's guess when the next Elder Scrolls will arrive. Todd Howard recently mentioned the "majority" of Bethesda devs are working on it, but gave no indication of a timeline for when we might get to see or hear more about the great return to Tamriel.
Odds certainly aren't bad that Total War: Medieval 3 wins that race, despite Collum's hopes otherwise. The sequel to Medieval 2: Total War will, like its predecessor, draw from the Middle Ages, and it's taken several false starts to get to now.
"We've tried to do it many times – but we felt we couldn't do it justice until now," Collum writes. "Bringing a game to life requires all the right things to fall perfectly in place; the right team, the right technology, the right vision to push the boundaries of our historical experience and deliver something that resonates with players worldwide."
The race is on: The Elder Scrolls 6 vs Total War: Medieval 3 vs Half-Life 3. GTA 6 is coming next November, but there's room for any one of these to be second, and I think my money's on Creative Assembly here.
