Inside Total War: Warhammer 40K’s Ambitious Push for Accessibility, Scale, and Chaos

When Creative Assembly first announced Total War: Warhammer 40K, excitement was immediately followed by one pressing question: How exactly do you translate one of gaming’s most beloved strategy franchises and one of entertainment’s most expansive sci-fi universes into a single experience?

For Studio Director Gareth Edmundson and Game Director Attila Mohasci, the answer starts with two simple ideas: accessibility and authenticity.

Speaking to Southeast Asian media during Tokyo Game Show 2026, the duo shared how Creative Assembly is approaching what may be its most ambitious Total War title to date, one that not only brings the franchise into the grim darkness of the 41st millennium but also introduces the series to consoles for the very first time.

Building a Better Entry Point for New Players

For a franchise that has spent more than two decades refining complex grand strategy systems, onboarding new players remains one of the team’s biggest challenges.

“We’re very conscious of that cognitive burden,” Mohasci explained, noting how Total War has developed a reputation for deep simulations and increasingly layered systems throughout its 26-year history.

Rather than stripping away complexity, Creative Assembly’s goal is to make it easier for players to understand and interact with those systems. One example can be found in the game’s destructible environments. Mohasci described how seemingly intuitive actions now naturally create understandable outcomes. If players destroy a building, they can shoot through the wreckage, move through the ruins, use debris as cover, and even eliminate enemies caught in the collapse. Mohasci explained that yes, these are all possible.

“The new engine allowed us to think about these things differently.”

Edmundson emphasized that approachability never means sacrificing depth.

“We don’t want to lose the depth. That’s important to our fans,” he said. Edmundson explained that it’s really about bringing players on a journey one step at a time and helping them build confidence.

That philosophy extends to the campaign structure itself. Creative Assembly wants players to feel increasingly comfortable with systems as they progress, ensuring they reach the grand campaign with the confidence to experiment rather than feeling overwhelmed. For newcomers, faction choice will also play a role. The developers noted that certain armies are intentionally easier to learn than others, with lower unit counts and more straightforward management requirements helping reduce cognitive load for first-time commanders.

And for those who simply want to jump into the action?

“You can just go into a custom battle and blow stuff up,” Edmundson joked.

Why Total War Is Finally Coming to Consoles

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises surrounding Total War: Warhammer 40K is that it marks the franchise’s console debut. According to Edmundson, the move has been years in the making.

“It’s really about the engine,” he explained. “We’ve talked about it for a long time, but we’ve also been nervous about whether we could make it work.”

The new title is powered by a completely rebuilt engine, one specifically designed with console support in mind from the very beginning. Previous Total War games had been considered for console ports, but Creative Assembly felt the experience would have required too many compromises. This time, the studio approached development differently.

“This has been thought about as a console product from the ground up, without compromising the depth of the experience for our PC players. This is the first time we’ve been able to do it.”

For Mohasci, the challenge extended beyond simply supporting controllers. The team needed to rethink interface design, readability, and how information is presented to players sitting several feet away from a television screen.

“Technology is not fine anymore. We need to do better,” he said.

The effort resulted in numerous quality-of-life improvements and interface refinements that benefit both console and PC players. Extensive testing has also led some traditionally keyboard-and-mouse-focused developers to increasingly favor controllers during their own play sessions.

“In fact, some members of our team are preferring to play on controller,” Edmundson revealed.

Creating the Definitive Warhammer 40,000 Strategy Game

If there was one phrase repeated throughout the discussion, it was Creative Assembly’s ambition to create the “definitive Warhammer 40,000 strategy game.” That ambition, however, immediately creates a problem, because Warhammer 40,000’s universe is simply too big.

“The universe, the lore, the IP is vast,” Edmundson said. “We can’t do everything at once.”

After years of internal debate, the team settled on Armageddon as its starting point. For Mohasci, the iconic conflict offered the perfect introduction to the universe. It captures one of Warhammer’s defining struggles, humanity’s fight against the relentless Ork Green Tide, while offering a rich foundation of recognizable lore and characters. That starting point eventually expanded beyond a single world.

To capture the scale expected of both Total War and Warhammer 40,000, the campaign now spans multiple planets and entire star systems, pushing beyond anything Creative Assembly has attempted before.

“We need it to lean into the scale of both IPs,” Mohasci explained.

More Than a Commander, Becoming Part of the Story

One of the most surprising additions in Total War: Warhammer 40K is a deep customization system that allows players to create their own warlords and factions. Customization has existed in limited forms before, but according to Edmundson, this is the first time the studio has embraced it fully.

In fact, during playtesting sessions, Creative Assembly discovered players were spending so much time customizing their Space Marines that they weren’t actually playing the game.

“We had people spending an hour just playing the customization and not playing the game,” Edmundson laughed.

For Warhammer fans, that obsession makes perfect sense. Painting and personalizing miniatures has always been a major part of the tabletop hobby, and Creative Assembly wants to translate that same sense of ownership into the video game experience.

Apart from cosmetic changes, Mohasci described the system as a personal storytelling tool.

“You tell your own story and your own experience in the 41st millennium.”

Players unlock additional customization options through progression, encouraging them to share unique factions, emblems, and Space Marine designs with others. The developers hope this naturally creates conversations between players, fostering a stronger sense of community around the game.

Pushing Total War Battles Further Than Ever

Warhammer 40,000 introduces a level of military hardware unlike anything seen in previous Total War titles. The game must balance melee combat, ranged warfare, special abilities, orbital bombardments, and gigantic war machines, all while maintaining meaningful strategic choices.

“It’s a challenge, but we love those challenges because that’s what makes it a unique experience.” Mohasci said.

The team has leaned heavily into asymmetry, something they identified as one of the most successful aspects of the Warhammer trilogy. Space Marines, for example, are designed to feel fundamentally different from Orks. Elite squads consisting of only a handful of warriors are capable of standing against waves of enemies numbering in the hundreds. The new engine allows Creative Assembly to push those contrasts further than ever before.

Meanwhile, planetary destruction is no longer the limit. The battlefield now includes devastating orbital weapons capable of carving paths of destruction directly from space, adding another strategic layer never before seen in the franchise.

Measuring Success Beyond Sales

While most games are judged by sales figures and player numbers, Edmundson offered a different perspective when asked how he personally defines success. Creative Assembly’s most enduring legacy is not launch performance but longevity. He pointed to titles like Medieval and Alien: Isolation, games that continue to maintain active player communities years and even decades after release.

“We want to create experiences people love and play for decades.”

For the studio, the ideal outcome is a game that successfully attracts newcomers while remaining beloved by longtime fans. If both audiences can find something meaningful in Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Creative Assembly will consider the project a success.

Chaos as a Storytelling Tool

Naturally, no discussion about Warhammer 40,000 would be complete without touching on chaos. For Mohasci, chaos isn’t simply about explosions and destruction. It’s about creating unforgettable moments that players will talk about long after a battle ends, like how an Ork launching through the air might collide with a structure, causing it to collapse onto unsuspecting combatants below. A perfectly timed bombardment could transform a losing engagement into a dramatic victory. Those unpredictable situations create the stories that define Total War.

“I’m always fascinated by the stories people tell,” Mohasci said.

Those stories, according to both developers, are ultimately the heart of the experience. Whether it’s a customized faction, a heroic last stand, or an outrageous battlefield accident, the moments players create themselves are what make Total War memorable. And if the early reception to the TGS demo is any indication, Creative Assembly may already be on the right path.

As Edmundson put it, making games is ultimately about creating joy.

“It’s kind of magic. It’s such a privilege.”

With a new engine, console support, massive interstellar campaigns, and enough orbital firepower to level entire battlefields, Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is shaping up to be Creative Assembly’s most ambitious strategy game yet. More importantly, it looks determined to ensure that whether you’re a longtime Total War veteran, a dedicated Warhammer fan, or a complete newcomer, there’s a place for you in the endless wars of the 41st millennium.

Total War: Warhammer 40K is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series from SEGA and Creative Assembly in 2027.