"The extra development time will allow us to finalise and polish Empire, making it the most accomplished and epic of the Total War series." said Kieran Brigden, Studio Communications Manager at The Creative Assembly. "There is a great deal of anticipation around Empire Total War and we want to ensure that it is the benchmark for strategy games upon its release."

Significantly the additional time will also allow Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for a much desired feature; a multiplayer campaign mode. An opportunity to participate in the 1 versus 1 multiplayer campaign mode beta will be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release.