Key Highlights:
- SEGA announced a multi-title deal between Creative Assembly and Games Workshop on 6 December 2012.
- The original agreement covered the Warhammer Fantasy universe rather than Warhammer 40,000.
- The partnership ultimately produced the Total War: Warhammer trilogy, beginning with the first game in 2016.
Quick Links:
SEGA announced on 6 December 2012 that Creative Assembly had entered into a multi-title licensing agreement with Games Workshop to develop video games based on the Warhammer Fantasy universe.
The partnership brought together the developer behind the Total War strategy series with one of Games Workshop’s most established tabletop properties. Creative Assembly formed a new development team at its UK studio specifically to work on the first Warhammer project.
At the time, SEGA said the first game produced through the agreement was scheduled to launch beyond 2013. Creative Assembly was already working on several projects, including Total War: Rome II and what would later become Alien: Isolation.
The agreement specifically covered Warhammer Fantasy. Despite Warhammer 40,000 already having a substantial presence in video games, the science-fiction setting was not included in Creative Assembly’s original licence.
The Partnership Led to Total War: Warhammer
The first game resulting from the partnership eventually became Total War: Warhammer.
Creative Assembly officially revealed the project in 2015 before releasing Total War: Warhammer for PC on 24 May 2016. The game combined the established Total War formula of turn-based campaign management and real-time battles with factions, characters, monsters and magic from Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
The project subsequently expanded into a trilogy.
Total War: Warhammer II followed on 28 September 2017, while Total War: Warhammer III completed the trilogy in February 2022.
Looking back at the original 2012 announcement, I think its significance is much clearer today. What initially appeared to be another licensing agreement ultimately established an entire fantasy branch of the Total War series that Creative Assembly continued supporting for years.
Creative Assembly Later Expanded Into Warhammer 40,000
The distinction between Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 was important when the original partnership was announced.
That changed much later in the relationship between Creative Assembly and Games Workshop. Creative Assembly officially announced Total War: Warhammer 40,000 in December 2025, bringing the Total War series into Games Workshop’s science-fiction universe for the first time.
The 2025 announcement was therefore not confirmation of what had been planned back in 2012. Instead, it demonstrated how far the Creative Assembly and Warhammer partnership had developed since the original Fantasy licensing agreement.
