Creative Assembly

The Creative Assembly Limited (trade name: Creative Assembly) is a British video game developer based in Horsham, founded in 1987 by Tim Ansell. In its early years, the company worked on porting games to MS-DOS from Amiga and ZX Spectrum platforms, later working with Electronic Arts to produce a variety of games under the EA Sports brand. In 1999, the company had sufficient resources to attempt a new and original project, proceeding to develop the strategy computer game '' Shogun: Total War'' which was a critical and commercial hit, and is regarded as a benchmark strategy game. Subsequent titles in the ''Total War'' series built on the success of ''Shogun: Total War'', increasing the company's critical and commercial success.

In March 2005, Creative Assembly was acquired by Sega; the studio now is a part of Sega Europe, which also comprises Sports Interactive, Relic Entertainment, Amplitude Studios and Two Point Studios. An Australian branch was operated from Fortitude Valley, Queensland as Sega Studios Australia. Under Sega, further ''Total War'' titles were developed, and Creative Assembly entered the console market with action-adventure games such as '' Spartan: Total Warrior'', '' Viking: Battle for Asgard'' and '' Alien: Isolation''.

History

Founding (1987–1998)

Creative Assembly was founded in 1987 by Tim Ansell. Ansell had begun professional computer programming in 1985, working on video game titles for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Atari 800. Initially, Ansell kept the company small so he could personally work on computer programming. The company's early work, often produced personally by Ansell, involved porting games from the Amiga platform to DOS, such as the 1989 titles Geoff Crammond's ''Stunt Car Racer'' and '' Shadow of the Beast'' by Psygnosis. Creative Assembly began work with Electronic Arts in 1993, producing titles under the EA Sports label, starting with the DOS version of the early ''FIFA'' games. With EA Sports, Creative Assembly was able to produce low development risk products bearing official league endorsements. The company's products included Rugby World Cup titles for 1995 and 2001, the game for the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the Australian Football League games for 1998 and 1999, of which the ''AFL 98'' title was particularly successful in the Australian market. When it became clear that the company needed to expand further, Ansell employed Michael Simpson in 1996 as creative director. Simpson, a microchip designer turned video game designer, later became the driving force for the creative design of the ''Total War'' series. Ansell left Creative Assembly after Sega acquired the developer in 2005, later on, Tim Heaton took over as studio director.

Early ''Total War'' titles (1999–2004)

As a result of their success in sports titles, by 1999 Creative Assembly had sufficient resources and backing from Electronic Arts to develop more high risk titles in other genres. The result was '' Shogun: Total War'', the company's breakthrough title. A blend of real-time tactics and turn-based gameplay, ''Shogun: Total War'' was announced in early 1999. The game focused the Sengoku period of Japanese feudal history, and upon its release in June 2000 it was met with critical acclaim. The game won multiple industry awards and became regarded as one of the benchmark strategy video games. Inhouse composer Jeff van Dyck won both a BAFTA and an EMMA award for his work on the game's soundtrack. In May 2001, Creative Assembly announced '' The Mongol Invasion'', an expansion pack focusing on the earlier Mongol invasions of Japan. Released in August 2001, the expansion pack also received a positive response.

Soon after, Creative Assembly broke away from Electronic Arts, instead using Activision as a publisher and distributor. In August 2001, Creative Assembly announced a second ''Total War'', set in the Middle Ages. '' Medieval: Total War'' was of a larger scope than ''Shogun: Total War'', spanning a larger time period and the entirety of Medieval Europe. Released in August 2002, the game was a greater success than ''Shogun: Total War'', becoming the best-selling video game in the UK for the first two weeks, and the fourth best-selling game in the US market in its first week. As with ''Shogun: Total War'', ''Medieval: Total War'' won multiple industry awards, and was named the top game of 2002 by ''PC Gamer''. Creative Assembly was awarded the "PC Game Developer of the Year" award at the 2003 European Computer Trade Show. ''Viking Invasion'', an expansion pack focusing on the Viking invasion of Britain in the Dark Ages, was released in May 2003.

A third ''Total War'' title was announced in January 2003. Entitled '' Rome: Total War'', the game featured a new game engine to ''Shogun: Total War'' and ''Medieval: Total War'', and redesigned the approach to the series. Set during the rise of the Roman Empire, the game's code was used for two television shows: the BBC's
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