Creative Assembly has a good thing going with its Total War franchise. For seven games now, it's been remarkable successful at combining real-time tactics and turn-based strategy, making money and consistently expanding its studio. Their next game, Rome 2: Total War, a sequel to the most beloved game in the franchise, is as close to a sure thing as exists in the game industry. But the game after that? That's Total War: Arena, announced at the Game Developers Conference, and it's a major risk, one with even greater potential reward.

Create Assembly has enough confidence in its games and its audience that the reveal wasn't a movie or demo of the game. Instead, it used a set of abstract illustrations to demonstrate its ideas for Arena. A few of these examples used Rome 2 assets, and that game will provide the initial base for Arena, but it wasn't graphics that were announced.

Total War: Arena will be an online battle between teams of a maximum of ten players apiece, with the individual players controlling up to three units. It will be free-to-play, with in-game experience and currency used to upgrade your units or purchase new ones. The monetization scheme will be based on purchasing "accelerators" which will help you gain experience and/or currency quicker, as opposed to pay-to-win or gated content.