Oxford historian has surprising role in developing new Total War video game

The Total War video games have sold more than 48 million copies over the last 25 years, and now an Oxford historian has helped shaped the latest release.

Professor Peter Wilson, Chichele Professor of the History of War, has been an advisor for the development of the upcoming game, Total War: Medieval III.

He was approached by British games studio Creative Assembly after one of the designers read his 2016 book, The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History.

Professor Wilson said: “I have found it a very rewarding experience to see how the designers grapple with the balance between playability and their desire nonetheless for authenticity.

"It gets you to think about fundamental questions: what were the motivations, what counts as a victory or success, what counts as meaningful change.

"Being compelled to think like that is useful because many of those questions are the questions that good historians should be asking themselves anyway."

Read more on the BBC.

Photo: An image from the new game, (c) Creative Assembly