Total War: Pharaoh is the next mainline historical game for the franchise

Total War: Pharaoh Mennefer Siege image
(Image credit: Sega)

What you need to know

  • Developer Creative Assembly and publisher Sega revealed that Total War: Pharaoh is the next big historical game in the series.
  • Total War: Pharaoh takes place at the collapse of the Bronze Age, with players choosing to play as Egyptians, Hittites, or Canaanites. 
  • Total War: Pharaoh is planned to release at some point in October 2023. 

The next big game in Creative Assembly and Sega's strategy franchise is on the way, and players are going back to the sands and rivers of the Bronze Age. 

Creative Assembly and Sega revealed Total War: Pharaoh on Tuesday, with a cinematic trailer showing the powerful Egyptians on the brink of collapse. You can check the trailer out below:

"There are few periods more iconic than Ancient Egypt; fraught with political intrigue, cataclysmic events and grand war campaigns, it's the perfect setting for a Total War title," said game director Todor Nikolov. "As Pharaoh, you must save Egypt from the cusp of destruction and guide your people through the calamitous Bronze-Age collapse. It is up to you to either survive or fade into history."  

While the Total War franchise has expanded into fantasy over the last few years, most recently with the 2022 launch of Total War: Warhammer 3, the last big historical game was Total War: Three Kingdoms in 2019. 

Total War: Pharaoh features eight different choices for leaders across three factions, the Egyptians, Hittites, and Canaanites. The game also delivers new features such as dynamic weather that can change in the middle of a battle, with sandstorms, rain, heat, and more changing the terrain and how armies can fight each other. Total War: Pharaoh is slated to arrive at some point in October 2023. 

Windows Central's take

This is an intriguing choice for the series' next historical game. I'm curious to see how a lot of these ideas play out, and while I absolutely love Warhammer 3 and keep coming back to Immortal Empires, it has been long enough that I need a good history-based fix in my strategy games. 

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Samuel Tolbert
Freelance Writer

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert.