Ara: History Untold News

Stardock Entertainment Assumes Post-Launch Production Leadership

[h2]Expanded post-launch roadmap details new maps, upgraded mechanics and more, including first premium DLC content [/h2]

Stardock Entertainment announced today they will assume production management for historical turn-based strategy game Ara: History Untold while Oxide Games will continue as lead developer. The game will continue to be published by Xbox Game Studios.

“With our decades of experience in delivering high quality strategy games, Stardock is uniquely equipped to lead development on future content for Ara: History Untold,” said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games. “By listening closely to players, we’ll elevate the game’s history-defining potential for players everywhere.”

Since collaborating before launch in September 2024, Stardock and Oxide Games have delivered well-received updates that added modding support, a global economy manager, expanded diplomacy, and dozens of community-requested enhancements.

The roadmap shown below reaffirms Stardock’s commitment to future content updates to the base game and features more information on Ara History Untold’s first premium DLC, Untold Scenarios, which adds new maps, historical scenarios and more.

In addition to the announcement and roadmap, we released v1.31 today, check out the changelog here.

[h3]Roadmap Highlights[/h3]

For more info on the next phase of Ara, read this blog from Brad Wardell.

If Civilization 7 let you down, underrated 4X game Ara is getting a big overhaul

Ara History Untold was released at precisely the wrong moment. It was September 2024, just three months after the first trailer for Civilization 7. If it had arrived a year or so earlier, 4X fans who'd worn out Civ 6 might have been tempted to try something new. But with Firaxis' sequel confirmed, a lot of people likely decided they'd just wait. Civilization 7 hasn't quite met expectations, however, and although Stellaris, Endless Legend, and Songs of Silence put variations on the theme, it seems like we're still waiting for a credible historical strategy game to rival the Sid Meier empire. Ara may have struggled at launch, but with a new studio in charge of post-release material, the upcoming DLC and dozens of free updates could catalyze a comeback.

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Introducing - The Steam Preview Channel

[h3]Introducing - the Steam Preview Channel[/h3]
We're excited today to announce the launch of the new Steam Preview Channel, an opportunity for players to test out the latest and greatest builds of Ara: History Untold as the team continues to add to the game post-launch.

[h3]Loaded today into the Preview Channel is the 1.3.1 patch. [/h3]
This patch primarily includes further updates and balance changes to diplomacy and AI, but future patches will include larger scope balance adjustments, as well as other bigger changes and feature previews.

To access the Preview Channel: Right-Click the game from your Library and select "Properties"

Choose "Betas" from the list on the left, enter this code into the Private Betas field:
rDM3pfbn4q9Y5P6xNujX

Then select "Check Code"
If you've entered it correctly, you'll see a message that says "Success! Beta unlocked." You can then click "Opt into: preview - Preview of next release"

Once you've done that, you'll trigger an update, and you've effectively switched your game over to the Preview Channel.

[h3]Some things to note:[/h3]

Although our goal will always be to upload high quality builds, due to the working nature of the Preview Channel you'll possibly encounter unique bugs, breaks, or other issues with the game, in those cases we greatly appreciate you sharing your experience with us so we can make sure it is resolved before the final release to the main channel.
Existing Multiplayer Games will not work on the Preview Channel - however you can start new Multiplayer games with other players on the Preview Channel.
It is not cross-save enabled with the main game channel, so any save games on the main channel will stay separate from your save games on preview channel.

Once you've entered the code, you'll continue to have access to the Preview Channel (pending other updates we make) - but you can switch back to the main channel at any time. To do so, head back to that Betas menu from the Properties menu of the game, click the "Select the Beta you would like to opt into" drop down menu and select "None". This will trigger another update, and move you back to the main channel. Going forward, to head back to the Preview Channel you'll just return to this same menu and select it from your list of betas.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the preview build, whether that's in the:

Ara: History Untold Discord Server
The Steam Community Forums
The Ara: History Untold Website Forums
Any of our various social media platforms!

Thank you for playing!
- The Ara: History Untold Team

New Ara History Untold update brings bribery and nukes to the 4X game

The race to grow your civilization, discover new technologies, and defend your interests is at the heart of any good 4X game, and now in Ara History Untold, that can all culminate in the nation-destroying push of a big red button. As the already excellent strategy game continues to improve and get even bigger and better, its new 1.3 update brings a load of new gameplay options - including the ability to fire nuclear missiles at rival civilizations.

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New Ara History Untold update brings bribery and nukes to the 4X game

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