Total War Saga: Troy Will be an Epic Game Store Exclusive, Also Free?

It’s been a while since the Epic Game Store made headlines by snagging a highly-anticipated new game for itself, and it’s not hard to see why. Historically, gamers have been extremely upset about the news that a game goes Epic Exclusive, at least for a few minutes, and while I think a lot of that rage has mellowed out now that the Epic Game Store has become actually functional – and even better than Steam in some cases – there’s still good reason for developers to step lightly.

So when Creative Assembly announced that their latest Total War spinoff, Total War Saga: Troy was going to be a 12-month Epic Game Store exclusive, they decided that they’d accompany that news with a most curious special offer to help ease the blow of the news: anyone who downloads the game within 24 hours of it launching on the Epic Game Store will get to keep it for free.

But it’s not so much that Creative Assembly is giving away the games: it’s more that Epic Games are buying them for you. So yeah. A lot of money was involved in this.

In a blog post, they explain why they decided to take this deal:

Epic approached us and asked if TROY could be an Epic exclusive, as part of a commercial deal. That’s not to say that we immediately signed on the dotted line, or that money was the only reason that we did this (it’s not!). It was a difficult decision, and you can be assured that there were a lot of differing opinions in the studio, and a lot of discussions about it – which largely focused on what it would mean for you, the players.

However, ultimately we considered two things. First we’re at a time when we’re looking to invest more into the ongoing development of Total War this felt like an opportunity to really move the franchise forward by getting it in front of more people. Secondly, Epic were paying for our players to have our latest release free on day one. For Total War’s 20th birthday, that felt like an opportunity too good to pass up.

They also explained they have no plans to make a deal like this again in the future.

I think the news of the game being Epic Exclusive for a year will be offset significantly by the fact you can get a brand-new Total War game absolutely free on the day it launches. My only concern is if the servers will survive the influx of thirsty gamers.

We’ll see.