Over the weekend, developer Creative Assembly granted a super-fan his dying wish: early access to the soon to be released Total War: Three Kingdoms.
A Redditor, by the handle of TheMissingLink5, created a heartfelt post on the Total War subreddit, entitled My brothers last dying wish, to play 3 Kingdoms.
TheMissingLink5’s younger brother, Robbie, was diagnosed with Leukemia late last year and was preparing to have a bone marrow infusion. Sadly, his battle took a turn, and doctors advised that he didn’t have long left.
Robbie, an avid gamer, had a last request. He wanted to play the newest game in his favorite series, Total War: Three Kingdoms, but his doctors weren’t sure he would make it to the game’s release date, May 24. TheMissingLink5 took to social media and contacted influencers in an attempt to have his brother’s plea be heard by the developer, Creative Assembly.
Thankfully, they heard and reacted swiftly.
TheMissingLink5 updated the Reddit post after being contacted by members of Creative Assembly: “u/DogbertCA on here and Grace on Twitter have made one kid extremely happy. When I told him the good news, he cried, and couldn’t believe this was happening,” they wrote.
“When I told him who sent it, he was so shocked. I then immediately got kicked out of the room to go home and download it since the internet at the hospital sucks. I should be back there in an hour and he cant wait to play!”
Robbie loved it, and the response to his story from the community was uplifting. “The response from all of you is amazing. We’ve been reading the comments to him and he lights up talking about it,” TheMissingLink5 wrote in an update.
“Watching the intro video he was amazed [at how] gorgeous it was. He went into detail telling me about the different people we could choose from, etc. It was a student-trains-teacher moment.”
Tragically, TheMissingLink5 said that Robbie died just after midnight on May 19. “I thank you all so much for everything these past 3 days, and the fact he was able to play his favorite game will always mean so much to me!”
A spokesperson for Creative Assembly said: “It was a small thing to do on our part—sending out a review code via DM—but we sincerely hope it offered some comfort during such a difficult time.”
This is not the first time Creative Assembly has granted a super-fan their final wish. A Total War player named James was immortalized in Rome 2 as a playable general and got to play the game months early and even make suggestions to the dev team before his untimely passing.
Total War: Three Kingdoms will release worldwide, May 24. Check out our thoughts on how the game’s fusion of fantasy and history could unite the franchise’s torn community.
