Diplomacy has been re-worked and becomes a more important part of the game, relationships between characters are described as 'Guanxi' after the Chinese concept. Whilst still featuring the turn-based strategy, factions, campaign and battle-map play familiar from older games in the series, Three Kingdoms aims to be more 'character focused'.

The game was released on 23 May, 2019 for Windows, Mac, and Linux via Steam.

The game uses the 64-bit Warscape Engine that was developed for Total War: Warhammer. Total War: Three Kingdoms is Creative Assembly's 12th major release in the Total War Series, set in ancient China in the Three Kingdoms period, it starts in 190 AD.