Wargaming, SEGA and Creative Assembly are moving forward today in a new partnership that sees Total War: ARENA published worldwide as the first ever title released by Wargaming's new publishing label, Wargaming Alliance. Wargaming Alliance is dedicated to providing third-party publishers and developers the tools, resources and platform to enter the highly competitive free-to-play gaming market along with access to Wargaming’s substantial subscriber base of over 100 million gamers.Total War, one of the key pillars of the SEGA business, is one of the most successful and influential strategy franchises of all time, mixing massive battles with deep tactical and strategic elements. Total War: ARENA, developed by Creative Assembly, brings those franchise tenets into the world of free-to-play gaming by blending the series’ trademark strategic experiences with intense 10-vs-10 player battles. Creative Assembly’s expertise, combined with Wargaming’s proven track-record in the free-to-play market, makes Total War: ARENA the perfect fit for Wargaming Alliance.To answer some of your questions:We are very proud of ARENA and the unique multiplayer battle experience it offers. The Closed testing last year confirmed the significant potential ARENA has. The publishing deal with Wargaming opens the game up to a huge, brand new community and is a strong fit with the game.It doesn’t affect the relationship at all. Both SEGA and Creative Assembly identified a commercially beneficial deal with the best interests of Total War: ARENA at heart. The fact that CA’s console team is working on Halo Wars Two as well, just underlines their agility and talent when it comes to developing games across a range of platforms and disciplines.This deal is for publishing ARENA only.Yes it’s the same development team, but it’s grown to allow us to meet the objectives for the game.While the core mechanics remain the same, following user tests and working closely with Wargaming the game’s balance, user interface and more have been redesigned and rebuilt to provide players with a better experience. In the time to come, we’ll be providing insight on the various changes we’ve made.Yes, the game is still free to play.Currently the focus is on PC only.Recent development work has included significant changes to the game including the balancing, progression and hosting platform. All of this means it was not possible to keep game progression. However because the game’s progression system now feels different to what it was before, it’s unlikely that players will feel like they’re having to cover old ground.No, the game will be available via the Wargaming Game Center platform. It is a new platform which will include all Wargaming products with single entryYour old game account will no longer work. You will need to create a Wargaming Game Center account to be able to play ARENA. Sign up here: www.TotalWarArena.com Yes, if you used to play any of Wargaming Trilogy games: World of Tanks, World of Warships or World of Warplanes, you will be able to use the same account to play ARENA. Please take in consideration that during Alpha and Closed Beta stages special activation key will be required in order to access the game. We will be providing more information on how to get one later on.We are still working on the timings for this, anyone who owns ROME II or is part of the Vanguard group will receive a special reward, more on this at a later date.To play in the Closed test phases you will need to sign a Wargaming NDA as part of the sign up process. The SEGA NDA will no longer be valid.That depends on the progress of the early alpha tests. We will let you know as soon as we have a confirmed date. You can submit your email for latest news and Closed Beta information now at TotalWarArena.com.Sign up at www.TotalWarArena.com The game will be in Alpha stage and later on in Closed Beta to allow for testing and balancing and will move to Open Beta once we have completed that process.Europe, CIS, US, Asia but not China.Yes, there is a dedicated, localised Chinese version of Total War: ARENA being worked on as well, though it is not part of our partnership with Wargaming. We will bring you more information soon.The ARENA subforums will not remain open.To stay informed with game news go to: