Total War Saga: Troy will be free at release if you're quick

By Eric Abent/June 2, 2020 2:15 pm EST

The next game in the Total War Saga series is on the way, and today Sega and Creative Assembly made a rather big announcement about the title. For starters, Creative Assembly has confirmed that Total War Saga: Troy will be an Epic Games Store exclusive title for one year – with a release date of August 13th, 2020 for the Epic Games Store, that means we won't see it arrive on Steam until August 13th, 2021.

Like a lot of these Epic Games exclusive announcements, that may not sit too well with Total War fans, but Sega and Creative Assembly are extending an olive branch to those who might be upset. Going hand-in-hand with this announcement was the reveal that Total War Saga: Troy will be free for all to claim on release day.

A Total War Saga: TROY will be released on the Epic Games Store on 13 August 2020 – and will be free to keep if claimed within the first 24 hours of release: https://t.co/E1RkT3jZON

Check out the trailer here: https://t.co/QjcUy4F0C1 pic.twitter.com/p8HmwrdbPE

— Total War (@totalwar) June 2, 2020

So, if you head over to the Epic Games Store in the 24 hours after Total War Saga: Troy launches, you'll be able to download it for free and keep it forever. Sega and Creative Assembly aren't the only ones to have this idea, as SNK recently announced that the Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection will be free on the Epic Games Store for an entire week after it launches.

In a blog post to the Total War website, Creative Assembly says that this was a decision for Troy specifically, meaning that it doesn't intend to make future Total War games exclusive to the Epic Games Store. The company also said that making Total War Saga: Troy an Epic Store exclusive allows it to experiment with branching out to different storefronts, and with Epic footing to bill for those free downloads in the first 24 hours, it potentially gets the series in front of a lot more players.

So, while Total War Saga: Troy will be an Epic Store exclusive, it isn't going to be like that moving forward. Creative Assembly says that the free window – which will be live for the 24 hours after Total War Saga: Troy's release – begins the moment Troy goes live on the Epic Games Store, so if you're a fan of the Total War series, be sure to mark the 13th on your calendar.