We still have a few months before Empire: Total War is released but folks who use Valve's Steam client can go ahead and pre-purchase the upcoming historical RTS game now. Pre-purchasing the Creative Assembly-Sega game via Steam also allows the user to download and play one of the previous games in the series, Rome Total War Gold, for free immediately.

That's not all. Both the downloadable and retail copies of the game will support Valve's Steamworks platform which will add things like friends list, achievements, and support for things like downloadable content and game updates. Steamworks wil also serve as the game's basis for its server browsing and multiplayer matchmaking with more details on these features to be announced later.