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Sega Acquires The Creative Assembly
by David Jenkins
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March 9, 2005
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Officials from Sega Europe have announced that the company has purchased British developer The Creative Assembly. Founded in 1997 by Tim Ansell, the company, which has since expanded with offices in Australia, is best known for the Total War series of PC strategy games.
The developer would previously have been seen as an odd much for Sega, best known for its Japanese-originated arcade titles, but it’s recent signing of British developer Sports Interactive for the Football Manager series, and repeated talk of wanting to expand its portfolio with more Western orientated titles, makes the match more understandable.
Although Sega America has made similar statements about wanting to expand its range of titles, it is only Sega Europe which has announced any significant acquisitions, all of which have so far been centered on the UK. Perhaps the most significant example of this was the recent establishment of a new development studio in central England dedicated to producing racing titles using new and established Sega properties.
The UK has always been traditionally well-disposed towards the company (as evidenced by the unexpected success of the recent Sega Mega Collection Plus compendium), and there are perhaps a greater concentration of developers in Britain than any other country in Europe.
The Creative Assembly’s first title under the new deal will be Spartan: Total Warrior – a spin-off of the Total War series for all three current consoles. This is surprising not only because the game is not currently scheduled for the PC, but also because of its relative lack of historical accuracy – with a host of mythological creatures included in what is described as "brutal combat meets epic warfare".
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