Ubisoft is partnering with Epic Games Store for Anno 1800

Following the successful launch of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 on PC on the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games store, we are announcing today that we are partnering with Epic Games on Anno 1800 as well. Players can now pre-order the Deluxe and Standard editions of Anno 1800 on PC on the Epic Games store. Moreover, all players will be able to try Anno 1800 via the Open Beta, scheduled from April 12 to April 14, by downloading the game on Uplay or via the Epic Games store. Once the game has been released on April 16, 2019, Anno 1800 will only be available digitally on the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games store. Pre-orders on Steam can be made until the release of the game. Everyone who pre-ordered Anno 1800 on Steam will be able to play the game upon release and will automatically get all future updates and content.

Frequently asked questions

Will the game stay in Steam libraries for those that have preordered?
If you pre-ordered the game via Steam, it will remain in your library. You will be able to launch the game through your Steam client, and you will receive all content and game updates at the same time as players on other digital storefronts. Ubisoft is committed to provide the same experience to all Anno players regardless of their point of purchase.

Can I preorder Anno 1800 on Steam?
Yes, while the game will be available for digital purchase only on Uplay and the Epic Games store after April 16, Anno 1800 can be preordered on Steam until this point. If you preorder the game on Steam, you will be able to play with others who purchased the game on other digital storefronts and get all the upcoming content and patches that will be released after launch.
Whether you have preordered or not, we hope you will join us for the Open Beta on April 12th.

Will Steam players be able to play with all other players?
Yes, Steam players will be able to play online with the same players as Uplay or Epic Games store players. Anno 1800’s multiplayer modus is handled via Uplay regardless of your chosen digital storefront, and will always allow all players to play with and against each other.

Will Steam CS still support players if the game will not officially be on their platform anymore?
As usual, for any support inquiries concerning the Steam store environment, you will still get in contact with the Steam customer support team. For any game related issue, such as technical problems with the game itself, our Ubisoft customer support will provide assistance.

Will the experience for Steam players be the same as Uplay players?
Everyone who pre-ordered Anno 1800 on Steam will be able to play the game upon its release on April 16 2019 and will receive all future content and game updates at the same time as players on other digital storefronts.

Will future patch and content be available to Steam players?
Steam buyers will receive all future content and game updates at the same time as players on other digital storefronts.

Will the previous Anno titles still be on Steam?
There are currently no plans to remove any of the previous Anno games from Steam’s storefront.

Will my Steam preorder be cancelled?
All pre-orders on Steam will be fulfilled. Everyone who pre-ordered Anno 1800 on Steam will be able to play the game upon its release on April 16 2019, and will receive all future content and game updates at the same time as players on other digital storefronts.

Will Steam receive updates/patches like the other platforms?
You will receive all content and game updates at the same time as players on other digital storefronts.

Will the Open Beta be available on Steam?
The Open Beta will be available to all players through Uplay PC and Epic Games store.

DevBlog: A message to the Union!

As the release of Anno 1800 is drawing close, we want to kick off our launch marathon with a message from our dear Union friend Artur Gasparov.
Starting today, we will push the engines to launch mode where we will provide answers on the last burning questions (such as Open Beta details next week), bring you DevBlogs about the campaign and the soundtrack and – of course – more live-streams such as our EGX panel and a ceremonious unboxing soon!

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And with the last sprint before launch, what are you looking forward to and what are your last curious questions for the big maiden voyage on April 16?

Union Update: Meet your rivals!

Welcome to another week in the Anno Union, this time with an introduction to the cast of Anno 1800 second party characters as well as an update to the streaming schedule.

Meet your rivals!
Originally planned for the end of last week, we prepared a video for you showcasing the variety of AI opponents which will be able to choose as your dire enemy or future to be ally.

Every single rival will have their own character, which will not only define their general difficulty rating but also influence their playstyle.
Since the Closed Beta, we improved their behaviour in many ways and while old chap  Willy will remain let’s say, a slow and simple fella, the AI’s capabilities of defending islands or deciding on various tactics fitting to the situation has improved a lot. As an example, especially war savvy characters will make decisions such as attacking your Harbour directly, engaging your war fleet or launching attacks on your trading routes based on the current situation.

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Are you looking forward to testing your skills in naval warfare against the Psychopath Graves or are you more interested in Tea parties with Bente Jorgensen? We are curious to know how important the second party opponents are for you and if you are more the player who likes to challenge themselves with the most fierce of opponents?

Streaming Schedule – 2 streams on the horizon!
As promised during our special German episode of our Community Corner last week, we will have another English episode this week Wednesday at 5pm CET.
While we won’t have a special guest this time, our Community Developer Bastian will not only give you further insights into the fourth tier but also answering your chat questions.

And as one stream is not enough, our Anno Afternoon community crew will return this Friday 5pm CET – Not only Guddy is back on board, we will also jump from the trusty old Closed Beta ship to a newer development version of the game!

We plan to bring you more live-streams in future, from development insights with our AnnoCasts to community focused shows like CommunityCorner and AnnoAfternoon.
If you do not want to miss a show, make sure to follow out twitch channel to receive notifications as soon as we are online.

Union Update: Anno 1800 at EGX London

This week in the Anno Union, we have some exciting news about the upcoming EGX Rezzed convention in London and more live-streams on the horizon with the return of the Community Corner. We do not want to withhold you a teaser for this week’s DevBlog: this time, we will give the cast of our second party characters a spot in the limelight.

Anno 1800 will be at Rezzed London
We will bring Anno 1800 to this year’s EGX Rezzed 2019 in London on April 4th-6th. EGX Rezzed is London’s best-loved and biggest games event: a festival of independent gaming that celebrates one of the world’s greatest pastimes. Every year they bring thousands of gamers together in the unique setting of London’s historic Tobacco Dock to play a fascinating variety of games and meet their creators, from tiny student startups to the world’s biggest developers.

You will not only be able to play the game at the convention, but our Community Developer will also be there on Thursday to give you some exclusive insights into the game and answer your most burning questions during the Anno 1800 panel April 4th at 4pm!
And if you are not able to visit the EGX Rezzed in London, we will host the panel on our Ubisoft Blue Byte Twitch channel.

German Community Corner Special
And while we at the topic of streaming, we will have a German episode of our Community Corner stream this week Thursday at 6pm CET, with the German strategy gamer The Writing Bull as a special guest!
As you know, we want to bring the world of Anno to as many fans as possible and therefore, we will have another English episode of the Community Corner as well as of the AnnoAfternoon in the upcoming week.

We are really happy how many of you watching our streams and sharing your thoughts in the live chat. Keep in mind that we are always looking for feedback and ideas for our live-streams from our community. Let us know what you think of our streams and what you would love to see in the future in the comments below.

Community Creations – a stunning centerpiece for the dining room!
g00fy’s Anno 1800 table, created by his talented friend Martin, is a real eye catcher in any kitchen or dining room! With the 19th century setting, is there anything your will or would like to build, paint or just use to decorate your PC desk for the big release on April 16th?
The setting begs for creative community creations and we are curious if we will see more crazy creations in the future:
You can check out the original post here:
https://twitter.com/thkg00fy/status/1104459721795358720

Union Update: Streaming and multiplayer Q&A

As the release date of Anno 1800 draws closer, we are in the final sprints to polish and balance the game. Creating the DevBlog takes a lot of time and much of the games content has been highlighted in some shape or form already, the game developer insights will take a short break this week. We brought you dozens of DevBlogs since launch of the Anno Union in 2017 and we still have some articles in our pocket leading up to the launch of the game.

But we won’t be lazy as we will ramp up the amount of Anno 1800 live-streams on our twitch channel with the AnnoAfternoon stream returning this week and the Community Corner coming back in the week ahead with a German episode including a special guest.

Livestream: AnnoAfternoon
It’s time once more for our Community team takes you on another Anno 1800 Twitch adventure! In the next episode of our AnnoAfternoon community stream, we will venture forth into the new world together, when we listen to your suggestions as to how we should build and name our cities.

When: March 8th, 4pm GMT
Where: twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

Annoverse Roundtable recordings
Last week’s Annoverse roundtable was an absolute blast! Over the course of two hours, we made a challenge out of answering as many questions as possible and thanks to the Annoverse team and community member Domo, you can listen to the recorded German and English session here:
Annoverse Anno 1800 Roundtable German
Annoverse Anno 1800 Roundtable English

Last but not least, we have prepared some answers to your most burning multiplayer questions in today’s community Q&A.

FerudaFarstaria
When we add friends from our friends list. Does this include the Steam friend list and Uplay? Or do you have to find your friends in the game, and add them to your friends list? I’d really like to know if this does link to friends lists in Steam, and Uplay.
Answer: Anno lists steam friends as well as your Uplay friends. In case you invite someone from you friend list, Anno does automatically select the right backend (Steam or UPlay) for the invitation and also receive and handle the invitations from both systems.

Mattly
We did find that once we had expanded into the new world we had to give up due to constant desync’s. As we are all on fibre and all in the same country (New Zealand) could this have been caused by the need to communicate with the host server where ever that is located or was it a known issue that has been worked out in these final weeks?
Answer: We identified and fixed many reasons for de-synchs thanks to the great participation of Closed Beta. This also includes many de-syncs related to the South America session. It is not very likely, that your desynch problems as described where caused by network issues, as because Anno tries to keep the connections “as local” as possible. Only if the NATs of the participants are not compatible, we are forced to route the traffic over Ubisoft servers to enable the players to join. But this also can be resolved by players by adding Anno to the exception list of your router.

elmoh1one
I would be interested in a whole Devblog about the topic synchronization. Which kind of data is exactly synchronized? How is the system checking if there are disparities between the different computers and how does that coherent with the simulation of the game?
Answer:
Simply speaking, every single player action will get recorded and synchronized before the system shares all input data of for the simulation with every other participating player (every PC in the session calculates all steps of the simulation for every player in the match).

Drake-1503
Does that mean that saved multiplayer matched can be continued with different players? That would mean it would be possible to create a staged savegame with already established cities instead of an empty map.
Answer: You are able to continue mutliplayer savegames even if the original players are not available anymore. When new players join, they can “overtake” an empire and continue to progress and expand with that game state. While it is technically possible to create scenarios that way, you would need to have a dedicated player for every single party as you cannot take control over two or more empires.

The_Waith_Lord
I would love to see that you could also do a search for players based on language and region to make it easier to communicate with the other players.
Answer: When looking for a player, our matchmaking takes the region as well as language into account. Should the system be unable to find a player after a while, it will expand the search for players with the same language across the globe. If the system is still unable to match you with someone, it will also widen the search to global players with any language.