Different times.
It’s hard to remember Creative Assembly wasn’t always synonymous with the Total War series, and yet, once upon a time, they were so well-known for sports games that pivoting away was seen as a risk. That’s part of the story told in a retrospective video about the making of Total War: Shogun put together to coincide with its 25th anniversary. It makes for a fascinating insight into how different things were for the studio at the end of the 20th century.
« When I joined there were five people and they were working on sports games for Electronic Arts », says former executive producer Mike Simpson, who was hired in 1996. « I joined in order to start something new. The idea was I was going to head up a team producing an RPG, and we were going to base it on Monkey: Journey to the West.
