The Total War Series Could Make the Jump to Consoles

Two of the leading developers working on the upcoming Total War: Shogun 2 have revealed that they have actively looked at how the popular strategy franchise could be ported to gaming consoles, suggesting that the game has been tested with a control scheme linked to home console.

Speaking to CVG Kevin McDowell, who is the leading artist working on the franchise, has stated when asked about a move to gaming consoles, “At some point. Maybe. I don't know. Somebody give Sega a bucket load of money to pay for it and we'd be alright.”

He added, ” We have actually solved the problem with controlling Total War games using a control pad anyway. In the past one of the artists actually coded up some experimental stuff just on his own time and was like, 'Oh that actually works really well'.”

Lead designer Jamie Fergusson added, “I mean you've talked about using joypads, we've also looked elsewhere, we're looking at everything including iPhones, online gaming as well. Just different ways of playing.”

The duo also suggested that the Total War experience could end up, with a host of restrictions, on Facebook as a social game.

It all depends on how much of the Total War experience the designers at The Creative Assembly are willing to sacrifice in order to take it to another platform.

Home gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 will likely require streamline gameplay and a way to quickly move from battle to battle.

Moving the gamer to the iPad could open up touch control but would require lower graphical quality and maybe less factions and less regions on the map.

At the moment, the developers at The Creative Assembly are putting the finishing touches on Total War: Shogun 2, which is set to be released in March 2011 on the PC.

The game is designed to take the franchise to its roots in Medieval Japan.