SEGA And Wargaming Partner Together, New Publishing Label "Wargaming Alliance" Created

In a move that I certainly didn't expect to be writing about today, Creative Assembly, SEGA, and Wargaming announced today that they have entered a strategic partnership and a new publishing label, "Wargaming Alliance," has been created. The label has been created in order to "[provide] 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." Its first published title will be Creative Assembly's MOBA/RTS hybrid, Total War: ARENA.

President and COO of SEGA Europe Jurgen Post had the following to say about the announcement.

SEGA is constantly exploring ways in which its diverse range of IPs can be brought to a wider gaming audience. This strategic partnership with Wargaming, to release Total War: ARENA as the first game on the Wargaming Alliance platform, presents a unique opportunity for Creative Assembly’s eagerly anticipated creation to realize its full potential. Working with Wargaming, a market leader in the free-to-play space, and by utilizing their extensive experience and expertise in this area, SEGA is confident that Total War: ARENA will become the worldwide hit it deserves to be.

Creative Assembly Studio Director Tim Heaton also weighed in.

For more than a decade, the Total War franchise has been the standard-bearer of strategy gaming thanks to its trademark gameplay and a focus on authenticity. The free-to-play market is an exciting new opportunity for the franchise and in the last year we have seen great potential with Total War: ARENA. The partnership with Wargaming Alliance is a perfect match of proven strategy gaming brands. We are excited to collaborate with the creators of the globally successful World of Tanks in bringing Total War: ARENA to gamers.

Completing the round table, the new Head of Wargaming Alliance, Vladimir Makarychev, has also provided a statement about the announcement.

For the past seven years, Wargaming has worked hard to establish itself as an industry leader in publishing games within the free-to-play area. Through the Wargaming Alliance label we hope to share our knowledge with other companies entering this highly competitive landscape and are extremely excited to partner with SEGA and Creative Assembly to ensure Total War: ARENA is a resounding success

You can read more about Wargaming Alliance on the official website. With any luck, we will be hearing more about a launch date for Total War: ARENA, which has been offline for some time following an extended period of Closed Alpha and Closed Beta testing, in the near future. While there has not yet been any news on that front, the press release announcing the partnership notes that Total War: ARENA will be released worldwide "with the exception of China."