Total War: Shogun 2 is free to keep on Steam

(Image credit: Sega)

Update: Total War: Shogun 2 is shedding its price on Steam today, letting armchair shoguns lead their armies across Japan for free. The offer starts today at 6 pm BST/10 am PT and will conclude at the same time on May 1. If you snatch it up between then, you can keep it forever.  

Sega's also hosting a Total War sale, starting at the same time. Select historical Total Wars will be discounted, though this lamentably doesn't include the Three Kingdoms or Rome main games or DLC, and obviously the fantastical Warhammer's won't be part of it. 

Original story: SteamDB keeps a list of free promotions so you can keep abreast of all the free weekends on Steam in advance. It also notes when games will be free-to-keep, which is why we can see that Total War: Shogun 2 will be given away to anyone who grabs it between April 27 and May 1.

Shogun 2 is nine years old but it's still my favorite of the historical Total War games, with a perfect map size to feel conquerable without having to throw away hundreds of hours and a theme that breathed life into blocks of troops marching across maps. Just last year Malindy Hetfeld reminisced about how beautiful and ambitious it was.

If you want something free right now, hUbisoft will be giving away Assassin's Creed 2 as well, though that will be through Uplay rather than Steam.

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he re having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.