With their release of Total War: Rome II only two weeks away from store shelves, the Creative Assembly alongside Sega have confirmed their plans to support the game post-launch, not only with additional paid content but free content as well.
James Russell, Lead Designer of the game had this to say during the announcement:
ROME II will be the biggest game we’ve ever released, in terms of scope, gameplay features and sheer weight of content but even then we’re just scratching the surface of the Roman period, an era so rich in diversity that it’s easy to foresee releasing relevant content for years after ROME II has shipped.
Alongside paid-for DLC, Creative Assembly also plan to support players with regular free content and feature updates. As with SHOGUN 2, we will continually improve the game’s compatibility, optimisation and integral features such as AI and gameplay balancing post-release, and plan to add to that with new control schemes and additional free formats on other operating systems. “We are also very proud of how SHOGUN 2 is our most moddable Total War to date with over 500 user-made mods on Steam Workshop alone. We hope to support ROME II in a similar fashion.
In addition to free content, gamers can expect to see Culture Packs that add more playable factions and unique units, Feature Packs that add gameplay or wide-ranging aesthetic changes, and Campaign Packs that add entirely new story-based campaign expansions.
The game will receive two new content packs upon launch, the free Pontus playable faction update and the paid Greek States Culture Pack. By October 2013 they also hope to have the Seleucid Empire pack out to gamers for free. During the same time frame they are aiming to release the paid Normadic Tribes Culture Pack – featuring the Royal Scythians, Roxolandi and Massagetae.
