Creative Assembly confirms “unannounced project” that’s not historical or fantasy Total War

British development studio Creative Assembly celebrated its 37th anniversary this past Sunday and marked the occasion by teasing an upcoming project on LinkedIn.

“While the past year has been challenging,” the company wrote, “we have an incredible line up for the future across Total War historical and fantasy, as well as an unannounced project set to bring you unforgettable experiences.”

CA Sofia recently delivered the final content update to Total War: Pharaoh, the studio’s latest historical game. It’s already been revealed that at least one team at the Bulgarian branch has been put to work on Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC, with one part of the upcoming expansion featuring U’Zhul Skulltaker, Golgfag Maneater, and Gorbad Ironclaw coming from the Balkans. Support for Total War: Warhammer 3 is set to last for a while longer, as the third installment of the fantasy trilogy is CA’s main revenue driver for the foreseeable future.

A new historical game has been in development at the studio’s British HQ for a while now with most signs indicating that the series will move on to World War 1, but recent rumors suggested that this game suffered from severe development challenges and might have been canceled, though there is no way to confirm any of these claims at the moment. A new engine seems to be in development for that as well, according to past job openings.

CA’s confirmation that a third project – one that falls outside of the “historical and fantasy” lines of Total War – is interesting due to the fact that several media outlets have heard about a Star Wars title being in development at the studio and previous job openings have indicated that a Total War game set in “brand-new IP” is on the way.  At the same time, many observers believe that a Total War game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe is inevitable due to the immense success Total War: Warhammer brought to both CA and license holder Games Workshop.

Both Star Wars and Warhammer 40,000 could potentially be counted as fantasy titles or be that third, unannounced project. CA asked fans about mechanics like space battles in a survey earlier this year.

Another intriguing possibility is that the third project isn’t a Total War game at all – the statement is certainly phrased ambiguously enough for that. However, with Sega clearly telling CA to focus on Total War again, that seems unlikely.