Sega unleashes Total War on … Facebook

Facebook gaming has fallen from its peak popularity late last decade as mobile has taken over, but Sega still sees potential in the platform.

Total War Battles: Kingdom is now available on Mark Zuckerberg’s social network. The strategy game has players building up castles while managing resources and engaging in skirmishes. Kingdom already debuted on PC, Mac, and mobile, but Sega is aiming to serve up something new to an audience on Facebook that are still playing aging releases like Sparta: War of Empires. Gaming on Facebook has shrunk, which has led to revenues in the form of payments for microtransactions to decline 20 percent year-over-year to $181 million. For comparison, mobile gaming is a $36.6 billion behemoth. But with Total War, Sega doesn’t want to ignore any potential source of income.

Total War is one of Sega’s marquee franchises. It is a long-running real-time strategy series from developer Creative Assembly that specializes in full-scale battles between platoons. On the PC, releases like Total War: Attila turn players into field generals.

For the transition to mobile and now to Facebook, Sega has shifted Total War to behave more like Clash of Clans. Kingdom focuses on resource management and building up defenses. That type of gameplay has proven lucrative for a number of games, and Sega wants a piece of that action.

While Total War Battles: Kingdom is available on PC, Mac, Mobile, and Facebook, you can pick up and play your campaign from any of those platforms whenever you wish. Your kingdom is available to you on your iPhone during your commute, and then it can live on in a Facebook tab in your browser at work. This likely doesn’t indicate any resurgence for the social network as a gaming platform, but it does suggest that it has potentially stabilized and found a niche audience to serve. And Facebook is promoting the game to that loyal following on its gaming portal.