14 DAY TRIAL // The Creative Assembly and SEGA have announced that they are planning to launch the public beta stage for the Campaign Multiplayer component for Empire: Total War. The stage will be outed on December 7 and all those players interested in taking part in it should log into the official Total War site and sign up.
Ever since the release of Empire: Total War, the developer has been saying that a multiplayer element encompassing the whole single player experience was being worked on but that the implementation was very complex and could take a while.
In this beta stage, the result of about six months of hard work from The Creative Assembly, two players will be able to be on the same Campaign map and to either cooperate or go against each other as they control their respective nations. It's not clear for how long the beta will go on and whether the functionality will be added free of charge for those who have Empire or whether the whole thing will only appear in future titles.
The Creative Assembly and SEGA have already released The Warpath expansion for Empire, which introduces five new tribes to North America, each with its own tech tree and with new units and they also plan to put out a new piece of downloadable content, called Elite Units of America, introducing the various named regiments that defined the history of the continent.
In February 2010, fans of the Total War type of experience will be able to get their hands on Napoleon, a new title that will tell the story of the most important military campaigns of the early XIX Century, allowing the player to actually change history by making France victorious or control the other European powers in order to destroy the dreams of Empire Napoleon had.