Total War Saga: Troy will be free at launch says Epic Games

Epic has announced that Total War Saga: Troy will be entirely free for the first 24 hours of its launch this August. 

Previously considered quite a coup for Epic, Total War Saga: Troy has been hotly anticipated for strategy fans with previous titles in the series being well received. Total War Saga: Troy focuses on the historical flashpoint of the Trojan War and is based on Homer's Illiad. Interestingly, it's aiming for a more realistic approach over being too mythologically based with Minotaurs being recruitable but actually being warriors wearing bull's heads as a form of armour. It's shaping up to be rather intriguing. 

Before this news, Epic announced that it had an exclusivity deal with Creative Assembly, ensuring that the game would only be available through the Epic Games Store for the first 12 months of its launch before finally making its way to Steam in 2021. While that was sure to divide many players because, really, who needs to juggle so many different services, the news that Total War Saga: Troy will be free for the first 24 hours is sure to change some minds. 

There doesn't appear to be a catch here at all with Epic announcing that it will be entirely free on August 13th and yours to keep forever. It'll even still be paying the developer for every copy so if you like to support Creative Assembly, you won't have to worry about the firm missing out. In a brief statement, Creative Assembly explained, "for Total War’s 20th birthday, that felt like an opportunity too good to pass up".

In conjunction, Sega Europe's Chief Studios Officer Tim Heaton expanded upon that, explaining, "not only does this mean that we can bring the tales and legends of Troy to a wide audience through Epic's massive platform, but it also means new players will get to try Total War for the first time, experiencing the unique gameplay that the series is famous for." This certainly seems like the ideal time to give the series a whirl, even if strategy isn't usually your thing.

It's also a shrewd move for Epic which has increasingly seemed a promising proposition for both gamers and developers alike. In recent times, it's announced generous schemes for companies it's become publisher of, and it also regularly offers up fairly good games entirely for free through the Epic Games Store. Right now for instance, you can grab Overcooked entirely for free. While it's a pain needing to have different game library apps installed, it's hard to be too annoyed when freebies are so readily made available.