Venturebeat Interview with Mike Simpson on Total War in 2015

[Nico CA]

Hi guys!

Total War is turning 15 this year and Venture Beat took the opportunity and talked to Creative Director Mike Simpson about Total War in the past, present and future.

Did you know that 850,000 people play Total War each month, with players spending 104 hours on average in each game? Are you currently above or below that on your play time?

If you want to find out what Mike had to say, check out the link below:
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/08/wh...ire-interview/

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

(I read it before it was posted)
But does it mean there are still some kind of support to Tw. Empire? or are is he just talking about the current titles? (Attila, rome 2)

GamesBeat: The audience has been growing to support a lot of different games, too. I don’t know if you’re at a point where you have a perennial, Call of Duty type of audience, one that plays all year round….
Simpson: We do. That’s always been true. One of the unusual things about the original Shogun is that it sold more copies in its second three years than in its first three years. The rest of the brand had grown and people would go back to pick up a copy of Shogun. These games last a very long time. People play them for four, five, six years after release. Out of that 850,000 player base that we have every month, some will be playing Empire, Napoleon, and so on.
As we keep going, one thing that we’ll end up doing is supporting games for much longer than we have in the past. It’s not like it was five or 10 years ago where you release a game and once it’s out the door that’s it. One of the five teams is now dedicated to ongoing support for previous products.

And does it mean map tools is on the way? or further improvement of the current tools?

and I think I spent more time on mod tools right now :3

[Anna_Gein]

^ I think he is talking about present/future titles. Starting from R2.

[Riekopo]

I'd like to ask Mike why they haven't started doing betas after the abysmal Empire and Rome 2 launches.

[anonimo272]

I'd like to ask Mike why they haven't started doing betas after the abysmal Empire and Rome 2 launches.

someone from CA affirmed that after rome2 the next title would have a beta
it was a long time ago so i cant remember who nor when

[Fredrin]

"That’s always been true. One of the unusual things about the original Shogun is that it sold more copies in its second three years than in its first three years."

Mmmm, I wonder if the same will be true of Rome 2... maybe... No?

[Huberto]

The main team will always be focused on single-player historical strategy games.

This is reassuring. And Warhammer would not qualify as a single player historical strategy game, yes?

[Påsan]

This is reassuring. And Warhammer would not qualify as a single player historical strategy game, yes?

I would think he meant the main total war line of the series. I would not read too much into it.

[Sharpe]

I would think he meant the main total war line of the series. I would not read too much into it.

Warhammer pls

[Frank Sobotka]

Warhammer pls

Warhammer was the reason why I got into RTT. Shadow of the Horned Rat on the Playstation.

[Humble Warrior]

So what`s going on here? Creating confidence in their product exercise before selling Atilla? The only slight issue kind of mentioned is how difficult it is to make soldiers `collide` and pathfinding. Very careful wording here. Main issues unmentioned. Using numbers that give the impression they want to make, rather than the truth behind the stats. I`m sorry, but I`ve seen this before.

Nothing gives me confidence here and it`s more like a cover than anything else. Sorry. Give me something substantial and I may think differently. I guess he`ll vanish behind the curtain again.