In December 2012, publisher
Sega announced a partnership with
Games Workshop to develop multiple titles for the
Warhammer series. Sega tasked
The Creative Assembly, the creator of the
Total War series, to develop the titles. The first game in the series was set to be released "beyond 2013". At the time of the announcement, Creative Assembly had five titles in development, which included 2013's
Total War: Rome II and 2014's
Alien: Isolation. On January 13, 2015, the game was leaked through an artbook called
The Art of Total War. The game was teased in a video released by The Creative Assembly to celebrate its 15th anniversary. However, the game was not officially announced until April 22, 2015, in which Sega released a cinematic debut trailer for the game.
Total War: Warhammer is set to be the first title in a trilogy, with expansions and standalone titles to be released in the future.
Total War: Warhammer was due to be released for
Windows on April 28, 2016. However, on March 3, 2016, Creative Assembly announced that the game was delayed to May 24, 2016. The Linux version was released by Feral Interactive on 22 November 2016 with the macOS version following on 18 April 2017.
Downloadable content The
Chaos Warriors downloadable content (DLC) was the first DLC to be released for
Total War: Warhammer; it was made available to purchase alongside its initial release and was included for those who preordered the game. This was widely criticized by the gaming community and from Warhammer fans in particular, with Creative Assembly, the developer of the game, stating they were "disheartened" by the reaction. On April 29, 2016, it was announced that the
Chaos Warriors DLC would be available for free for a week after its release. In May 2016, Creative Assembly announced that
mods and
Steam Workshop's features would be supported. Creative Assembly have developed several mods that were released alongside the game, while players can create their own mods through official mod tools. On September 26, 2018, an expanded limited-edition version of the game titled
Total War: Warhammer: Dark Gods Edition was announced on the official site which included Warriors of Chaos, Bretonnia, and Norsca along with the four core races. On July 30, 2020 a second expanded limited edition called
Total War: Warhammer: Savage Edition was announced which included Warriors of Chaos again as well as the Beastmen, not including its DLC that tied into the Wood Elves race pack. ==Reception==