Edit: For those of you who are looking for help redeeming your Total War Content, please see the 'How do I claim my free Total War gift from Creative Assembly?' question in our FAQ below. Or check out this blog post: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-arena-how-to-claim-your-free-total-war-content

If you already own all the Total War offer Content, please contact SEGA Customer support https://support.sega.co.uk/hc/sections/201122721-Total-War-Arena for a giftable version.

Greetings Commanders,

It is my unfortunate responsibility to inform you that Total War: ARENA will cease live operations in February 2019.

ARENA has been on a long journey, and we are thankful to everyone who joined us. We have learned so much during the development of ARENA and we have grown incredibly close with the community and involved you deeply into our development process. It has been an absolute privilege to work with you all on this project, but unfortunately the results of ARENA Open Beta Test did not meet all our expectations.

I would like to take a moment to thank the ARENA Team, who have poured their heart and soul into this game’s development and are just as disappointed by this as you.

For those of you wondering about the team, they will all continue working on Total War, sharing their experience and learnings from ARENA. ARENA’s technological advancements will continue to be part of Total War development going forward.

To you, the players and community, I have been inspired by your passion, your commitment and your continued valuable insight. Your input and encouragement have been instrumental to the game’s development. I cannot emphasize enough how much we have enjoyed working and playing with you all, and I know that we will greatly miss speaking with you online, debating your feedback, and fighting alongside you on the battlefield.

As a thank you for playing ARENA the team of Creative Assembly is offering a free piece of Total War content to all players of ARENA on the Wargaming Game Center. You can choose one of these 4 pieces of Total War content:

o Total War: MEDIEVAL II - Definitive Edition

o Hannibal at the Gates (Total War: ROME II DLC)

o Age of Charlemagne (Total War: ATTILA DLC)

o Grim and the Grave (Total War: WARHAMMER DLC)

To claim this offer, please look at the in-game news (live now) or check out the FAQ below.

Additionally, Wargaming asked us to share this message to all players:

“Alongside this, Wargaming invites the players to continue or try out World of Tanks, World of Warships, or World of Warplanes and is offering a gift: 30 days of Premium Account time common for all three games provided you played 100 or more battles in Total War: ARENA during the Open Beta (launched on February 22, 2018). To receive your Premium time, you need to log in any of the “World of…” trilogy PC games.

If you’ve spent money in Premium Shop during the Closed Beta or the Open Beta, or bought a starter pack before the Closed Beta started, and have unspent Gold and/or Premium time on your account as of November 22, 2018, you are entitled to receive the equivalent amount of your remaining Gold and Premium time in World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, or World of Warships (at a 1:1 exchange rate). In addition, all TWA Premium Shop purchases made from August 22, 2018 to November 22, 2018 will be fully reimbursed to you in equivalent amounts of World of Tanks and World of Warplanes Gold, or World of Warships Doubloons. To choose in which game you want to receive the gifts visit https://wargaming.net/personal/x/twa-transfer/.

Please take note:

· After you receive Gold and Premium time in another Wargaming title of your choice, the remaining amounts will still be available to you in Total War: ARENA, and you’ll be able to make good use of them until the game servers shut down;

· You may choose a game to receive your gift in until December 22, 2018. If you don’t make your choice before then, your Gold and Premium time shall appear in the title where you’ve played the most battles. If you haven’t yet played any of the “World of…” trilogy games, your Gold and Premium time shall appear in World of Tanks;

· Premium time starts ticking immediately after it’s remitted to a “World of…” title if you played it before; if you haven’t, your Premium time will begin the day you first launch the game;

· Your Gold and Premium time will appear in the title of your choice within a day after you take your decision.”

Real-money purchasing and registration of new accounts will be disabled immediately following this announcement, though the existing players will be able to play and spend the Gold they already have. The Total War: ARENA servers will shut down completely at 10:00 GMT on February 22, 2019. Today’s patch, the final one we’ll be deploying, has introduced contingencies to ensure that you will continue to find matches, even in the event of low player population. Please see the FAQ for more details, and we’ll be active in the comments too to answer your questions.

I look forward to all of you sharing your memories of the epic battles we’ve had together over the last few years.

Thank you for everything.

Joshua Williams

Creative Assembly Developer Communications

FAQ:

- When exactly is the game shutting down?

The final date that ARENA will be playable is February 22, 2019. Servers will turn off at 10:00 GMT.

- How will new players be affected during the sunset process?

From the time of this announcement, no new players will be able to start playing ARENA.

- What Will Happen to the TWA Premium Shop?

Starting today (November 22, 2018), you cannot make any purchases in the Total War: ARENA Premium Shop.

- What Happens to the TWA In-Game Shop?

The Total War: ARENA in-game shop will be available until February 22, 2019. Before that date, you will still be able to purchase Premium units and Premium time for Gold, convert XP into Free XP and Gold into Silver.

- How do I claim my free Total War gift from Creative Assembly?

To claim your Total War content, follow the link in the in-game news. All Total War gifts are playable on Steam and require a Total War Access and a Steam account, both of which may be created as part of the process. You can only access this offer through the in-game link and you may only choose one piece of content. If you have any issues with the redemption process, please contact SEGA support here https://support.sega.co.uk/hc/sections/201122721-Total-War-Arena

Players from any region may claim this gift, so long as you have played ARENA in the Wargaming Closed Alpha, Closed Beta or Open Beta. Free TW content can be claimed until the game goes offline on February 22, 2019.

If you played ARENA previously and have since uninstalled the game, you can re-install it using the same Wargaming account credentials and access the offer from in-game.

For instructions go to: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-arena-how-to-claim-your-free-total-war-content

- How do I claim my Wargaming benefits?

Wargaming offers a gift of 30 days of Premium Account time common for “World of…” games provided you played 100 or more battles in Total War: ARENA during the Open Beta (launched on February 22, 2018). To receive your Premium time, you need to log in any of the “World of…” trilogy PC games.

If you’ve spent money in Premium Shop during the Closed Beta or the Open Beta, or bought a starter pack before the Closed Beta started, and have Gold and/or Premium time on your account as of November 22, 2018, you are entitled to receive the equivalent amount of your remaining Gold and Premium time in World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, or World of Warships. All TWA Premium Shop purchases made from August 22, 2018 to November 22, 2018 will be fully reimbursed to you in World of Tanks and World of Warplanes Gold, or World of Warships Doubloons. To choose in which game you want to receive the gifts visit https://wargaming.net/personal/x/twa-transfer/.

- Why is the game shutting down?

Unfortunately, during the open beta, the game didn’t meet the expectations either Wargaming or Creative Assembly had for the title, and it was decided to bring development to an end.

- Are there any more patches?

No, the patch released on the November 22, 2018 is the final one. The patch notes are here https://totalwararena.com/en/news/patch-notes/update-31151-patch-notes/.

. This patch makes some changes to compensate for a smaller matchmaking pool. Further fixes are highly unlikely unless there is a game-breaking bug.

- Will matchmaking be affected by lower player numbers?

It’s highly likely that matchmaking across all tiers will suffer with a lower population. That is why the patch released on the 22nd November loosened the matchmaking criteria, so that matches can still be found when possible, patch notes here https://totalwararena.com/en/news/patch-notes/update-31151-patch-notes/. We have reduced the power differences between tiers to compensate for this, although there may be minor updates to matchmaking if needed.

- Will Server-Side Events, sales and promos continue to operate?

No, the weekend event on the November 16, 2018 was the final one. As of now, all shop purchasing is also disabled. You will still be able to spend your Gold in-game if you wish.

- What Happens to the TWA Forum and Social Network Pages?

The TWA CIS forum will enter read only mode from December 13, 2018. User commenting will be disabled on TWA Facebook from December 19, 2018. As the subreddit and ENG Discord server are owned and managed by the community, the future of those channels is up to the moderation teams.

- Does this mean Creative Assembly is moving away from multiplayer-focused games?

Not at all, Creative Assembly is still committed to exploring high-quality multiplayer experiences and will continue to do so.