- Creative Assembly developed Total War: Warhammer 40,000's controller support alongside the game's battle system
- Battle product owner Dave Petry says the team "landed something that really does work"
- Petry adds that he doesn't believe the "myth" that controllers can't work with real-time strategy (RTS) games
Creative Assembly developed Total War: Warhammer 40,000's battle system and controller support simultaneously, with battle product owner Dave Petry believing real-time strategy (RTS) games can work with a gamepad.
"So, we have a very clear mindset on, or a distinction between platform and controller, right?" said battle product owner Dave Petry in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom 2026.
"Because yes, obviously, controllers are your primary method for using consoles, but it's just an input method. It's an accessibility tool, right? It's how you want to play or how you would like to play, and so we've always wanted to be able to bring that experience to people who want to use a gamepad."
He continued, explaining that from the start, Creative Assembly developed the controller support alongside the game's battle system and campaign "to try and get it to the right spot" and believes the team has "landed something that really does work."
Petry referenced the internal experience developing Halo Wars 2, which he said was a "really strong implementation of controller and RTS," and that the industry is creating more and more strategy games that get controller support, and that these studios are doing "a brilliant job of it."
There's also a "myth" surrounding controller support and RTS and strategy games that don't work together, Petry added, but doesn't believe it.
"I think we are learning that we can do this right, and yeah, it's definitely something that we're all keen to keep evolving as we ship and work on it [Total War: Warhammer 40,000]," he said. "I think we've landed in a really solid spot. I think we're quite proud of where we are when it comes to the technical side of things as well."
Petry acknowledged the challenges that come with this technical aspect, but it's something Creative Assembly is "fully committed to doing" to "get us to a point where we are performing in the state we need to for console."
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 arrives in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.
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