Creative Assembly

Creative Assembly (officially "The Creative Assembly Ltd") is a British video game developer established on 28 August 1987 by Tim Ansell, best known for their "Total War" strategy games series (Composed of ', ', ' and ') and some sports games developed for distribution under EA's "EA Sports" label between 1993 and 2000. On March 9, 2005 Creative Assembly was acquired by SEGA.

Like many other British companies that appeared in the early '90s, Sussex based "The Creative Assembly" originally dealt with DOS ports of Amiga and ZX Spectrum games such as Geoff Crammond's "Stunt Car Racer" or the popular "Shadow of the Beast" by Psygnosis, and the popular "FIFA International Soccer" by EA Sports. Although based in the UK, Creative Assembly worked mostly with the Australian EA studios, which reflected on the titles produced with the Burnaby-based company - the official title of the 1995 RWC and of the 1999 Cricket World Cup, two games licensed by the AFL ("AFL'98" and "AFL '99"), and a return to Rugby, with "Rugby 2001" (which carried the license of the 1999 RWC, but was delayed).

Although already well known inside the sports gaming community, the major breakthrough into the mainstream was the first game in the "Total War" series - "Shogun: Total War". A mix between a turn based game similar to KOEI's "Nobunaga's Ambition" and massive real time strategy, which could include thousands of units who were actually affected by weather and terrain conditions, the game set in Sengoku period Japan was a critical success and achieved massive sales. One expansion ("Mongol Invasion") and two sequels, ' and ' followed, both with their own expansions. The latest installment in the series, "", was developed in Brisbane Australia and published by Sega in November 2006.

Given the potential of the "Total War" series and expertise with sports games, SEGA acquired them on March 9 2005 for a reported sum of around US $30M as part of a company investment in European software houses.

Games developed

* "" (June 13, 2000)
** "" (Expansion set for "Shogun: Total War")
* "" (August 19, 2002)
** "" (Expansion set for "Medieval: Total War")
* "" (September 22, 2004)
** "" (Expansion set for "Rome: Total War")
** "" (Expansion set for "Rome: Total War")
* "" (October 24, 2005)
* "" (November, 2006)
** "" (Expansion set for "Medieval II: Total War")
* "" (March 2008)

Upcoming games

* "" (February 6th 2009)
* "Stormrise" (TBA 2009)

ee also

* Jeff van Dyck, audio director of "The Creative Assembly Australia" and composer of the soundtracks of the "Total War" franchise

External links

;Official
* [http://www.creative-assembly.co.uk/ Official website]
* [http://www.creative-assembly.com.au/ The Creative Assembly Australia website] ;Other
* [http://www.mobygames.com/company/creative-assembly-ltd/ MobyGames page]
* [http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58179 Eurogamer - SEGA acquires Creative Assembly]
* [http://www.queenslandgames.com Queensland Games]