Creative Assembly Accidentally Leaks 'Total War: Warhammer 40k' During Anniversary Stream

Rumor Mill
Written By NLM Team

Creative Assembly just pulled a classic "developer livestream oopsie," and the internet is already losing its mind.

During their recent 25th Anniversary celebration stream, Creative Assembly gave us a peek behind the curtain at their development tools. It was supposed to be a nice, safe look at how they make the sausage. Unfortunately for their PR team, they forgot to blur out the label on the sausage casing.

Sharp-eyed users on Reddit and YouTube spotted a folder labeled "40k" sitting plainly in the developer's file browser. If that wasn't enough to get the hype train leaving the station, another screenshot revealed a text entry for "fleet action," which all but confirms we are leaving the ground for space combat.

The Grimdark Evidence

We have been hearing rumors about a Total War: Warhammer 40,000 game for years. We all assumed it was coming because Games Workshop and Creative Assembly basically print money together. But this is the first time we have seen actual, tangible proof from the studio itself, even if it was an accident.

The evidence is pretty damning. First, you have the folder explicitly named "40k" visible in the dev tools, which pretty much kills the "Star Wars" rumor dead in the water. Then you have the text referencing "fleet action". You don't have fleets in fantasy land battles, so this implies ship-to-ship combat is back on the menu. Finally, the timing is suspicious, with this slip-up happening right before The Game Awards, where a reveal is heavily rumored.

Why "Fleet Action" Matters

The "40k" label is the headline, but the "fleet action" text is the mechanic that actually matters. Total War has struggled with naval combat for years—they basically abandoned it in Warhammer fantasy. But you literally cannot do Warhammer 40,000 without space battles.

Seeing "fleet action" in the dev tools suggests they aren't just doing "Space Marines on a grass field". They might actually be building a system for void warfare, Gothic cruisers, and orbital bombardments. If they pull that off, this won't just be a reskin; it will be the biggest evolution of the engine since Empire.

What Happens Next

The cat is out of the bag, and it is wearing power armor. We are almost certainly getting a reveal at The Game Awards next week. Get your chainswords ready.

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NLM Team
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