GDC 2005: SEGA Gets Creative is the headline of a news story on IGN, reporting on SEGA Sammy Holdings' announcement to shareholders that it intends to acquire The Creative Assembly. The Total War developer has offices in England and Australia, and will cost SEGA about $30 million. Here's part of SEGA's reasoning for buying the developer.

The Creative Assembly Ltd. has produced good results and has an established brand identity with the "Total War" PC series, whose titles have sold over a million throughout North America and Europe. By acquiring the shares of The Creative Assembly Ltd., Sega Sammy Group will be able to obtain competitive titles and a strong brand in the North American and European markets, in addition to expand product lines and increase sales volumes dramatically. Furthermore, we believe that we will be able to make good use of the development engines produced by The Creative Assembly Ltd. to expand future titles, as well as developing new ventures for next-generation platforms with the team.