The next Total War game could leave powdered wigs - and possible real-time strategy - behind. Sega is looking for ways to branch the franchise into different areas.

"People often ask if we'd take Total War in [the MMO] direction and we're constantly looking at it, but MMO is a very competitive market," Sega West boss Mike Hayes told CVG. Hayes also agreed when the interviewer asked if future TW games could be influenced by other genres.

He also suggested that modern (or futuristic?) games were possible. "There is still a lot more we can do in the pure historic field. But we also think we can take things in another direction - obviously I can't give you any more there. But we want to branch into different areas."

Though Creative Assembly is more well-known for their historical RTS', that's not all they've ever made. They've released two action games, Spartan: Total Warrior (a spin-off of Total War and Viking: Battle for Asgard. Last year they dipped their toe into sci-fi with strategy game Stormrise.

Late last year, Creative Assembly began actively recruiting programmers with console experience. Perhaps that's related to Total War's new direction.