Voodoo Extreme has a multi-point document from Creative Assembly responding to several complaints, including that the just-announced Napoleon: Total War will take resources way from Empire: Total War, as issues remain in CA's previous installment in the RTS series. Here's the response to that part in particular:

We have not given up on supporting Empire. The major AI upgrade patch is still very much being worked on and is coming shortly. It will be with you a good while before Napoleon's release. Napoleons development is ongoing, just as our support of Emprie is ongoing. We recognise Empire had problems on release and we've dealt with the vast majority of stability and performance issues people are having. We now need to balance and address gameplay issues. The AI particularly. We have listened to everything you have said and are looking to address as much as possible. Empire has not been forgotten and a major gameplay upgrade is coming, and coming soon.