Creative Assembly announced Total War: Arena, a free-to-play multiplayer spin-off of the main series, in 2013. Unfortunately, it looks like players won't have a chance to check out the full game, as the producer is going to shut down the game's servers in February, as the results of Arena's open beta test did not meet all expectations of Creative Assembly and World of Tanks publisher Wargaming.
"I would like to take a moment to thank the Arena team, who have poured their heart and soul into this game’s development and are just as disappointed by this as you," Creative Assembly Developer Joshua Williams said in a note on Arena's website. "For those of you wondering about the team, they will all continue working on Total War, sharing their experience and learnings from Arena"
As a thank you for playing Arena, Creative Assembly is offering a free piece of Total War content to all players of Arena on the Wargaming Game Center, choosing one of these 4 pieces of Total War content: Total War: MEDIEVAL II - Definitive Edition, Hannibal at the Gates (Total War: ROME II DLC), Age of Charlemagne (Total War: ATTILA DLC), and Grim and the Grave (Total War: WARHAMMER DLC).