Tag: Announcement

Union Update – An update on Anno 2070’s online services

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hello Anno Community,

Today we are informing you that  Ubisoft has decided to decommission online services for some older games on September 1st, including Anno 2070. You can find the full list of all impacted games here. And, as you know, Anno 2070 has several features tied to its online services.

That said, after an initial investigation, we have decided to dedicate some of our development resources to work on upgrading Anno 2070’s aged online services infrastructure to a new system, so that these features can continue to be used past the mentioned date. However, we cannot yet guarantee that we’ll be able to successfully upgrade/replace the old services as we’d like to.

Please note that until September 1st, the current online services will still be fully available. We will provide more detailed updates on the future of Anno 2070 in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you for your understanding.

Announcing the Season 4 Pass

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Earlier today we used our latest Dev-Stream to finally lift the curtain on the highly anticipated Season 4 Pass for Anno 1800, which will add three exciting new DLCs to the game throughout 2022. As mentioned, when we first teased Season 4 at the end of last year, the three new DLCs will focus on your New World region, giving you new optimisation opportunities, a new resident tier to attract and new islands to settle.

Each DLC will also ship with a scenario, providing brand new challenges outside of the main campaign or sandbox game.

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DLC 1 – Seeds of Change (releasing April 12th, 2022)

Season 4 kicks off in just two weeks with the first DLC – “Seeds of Change” – that allows you to revolutionize the agricultural sector of the New World.

To make this possible, you’ll first have to build the powerful Hacienda, which will become the agricultural hub of your New World empire. Construct and expand your own country estate with new ornaments as well as various highly efficient modules.

Those allow you, for example, to brew beer directly in the New World and house your population in more space-efficient residences. Benefit from the adoption of island-wide policies through the Hacienda and produce high-quality fertiliser to boost your local farms and even export it to the Old World.

The new scenario, Seasons of Silver, you will follow Vasco Oliveira’s story into a different part of the New World where you will need to face harsh weather conditions while fulfilling ever increasing silver production quotas.

DLC 2 – Empire of the Skies (planned for Summer 2022)

This summer, our second DLC, Empire of the Skies, will usher in the Age of Airships.

Using the latest construction materials from the New World, you can build a variety of new specialized airships.

Optimize your logistical network by transferring goods and workers between your islands in the New World, and keep your people connected with the new mail system.

Your tactical planning will also take on a whole new dimension as you and your competitors vie for aerial mastery.

Empire of the Skies we will also come with another new scenario. More details on this later this year.

DLC 3 – New World Rising (planned for late 2022)

Season 4 will come to its grand finale towards the end of the year.

With the third DLC, New World Rising, you will not only experience the industrial and economic boom of the New World first-hand, but also let your residents embrace their cultural roots and welcome a new population tier.

Discover a highly demanded feature introduced with New World Rising – newly discovered islands offer crucial additional building space to further expand your empire.

You get to enjoy the sight of colourful, thriving cities and build an iconic monument as the ultimate landmark for a self-confident identity of your New Worlds residents.

And like the two previous DLC, “New World Rising” is also accompanied by a scenario.

Bonus Content

While all DLCs will once again be available for stand-alone purchase, there are a few benefits for buyers of the Season 4 Pass. You will receive three exclusive ornaments upon the release of DLC 10, each of them themed after one of our new DLCs: the Ornamental Fountain, the Airship Monument and the Splendid Gateway. Buyers of the Season 4 Pass will also be able to get all three DLCs for 24,99€/$, which represents a saving of around 10€/$ versus individual purchases.

New ways to buy Anno 1800 for Season 4

While the Season 4 Pass is the best way to enjoy all the new content for our existing Anno 1800 players, we also want to offer new ways to users who want to jump into the age of the industrial revolution in time for Season 4. That is why we have created two new editions of the game that will be available through Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store, starting today. At the same time, we are removing the previously available Gold Edition and Complete Editions for new buyers (existing owners will, of course, keep all their content, and still be able to re-download it in the future).

All these bundles below will be available from April 12th onwards.

Anno 1800: Complete Edition Year 4 – 119,99 €/$

The best way to jump aboard Anno 1800 is the new Complete Edition Year 4, which includes the full version of Anno 1800, the Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade with the Anarchist character, as well as all four Season Passes. This edition represents savings of around 50€/$ versus buying all included content individually.

 

Anno 1800: Gold Edition Year 4 – 79,99€/$

If you just want to dive right into the new Season 4 content and worry that all previously released DLCs may overwhelm you, the Gold Edition Year 4 is the right choice for you. It includes the full version of Anno 1800, the Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade with the Anarchist character, and the Season 4 Pass. This edition represents savings of around 15€/$ versus buying all included content individually.

 

We are, of course, also still offering the classic standard version of the game for 59,99€/ $, giving to anyone looking to build their personal industrial empire the maximum flexibility in how they want to get started.

 

“Cosmetic Pack” Bundle – 24,99€/$

In addition to these editions, you can now also buy all six Cosmetic DLC of the previous years in a dedicated Cosmetic DLC bundle. This bundle is perfect for all beauty builders and includes the “Holiday” Pack, “Amusements” Pack, “City Lights” Pack, “Vehicle Liveries” Pack, “Pedestrian Zone” Pack, and “Vibrant Cities” Pack.

Thank you all for your tireless passion and support for Anno 1800, which has not only allowed us to reach over 2M players by the end of 2021, but also to support the game with a fourth year of new content and free game updates that will improve the game for our community!

 

Stay safe,

The Anno 1800 Team

Development of Anno 1800 – Season 4 is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action within the framework of computer games funding.

We cordially invite you once again

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

So, here I am, writing this invitation to you to join us once again to the unveiling of a new season of content for Anno 1800.

 

We gave you a glimpse at Season 4’s content in December, now it’s time to talk in detail about our plans for this year’s three DLC and their focus on the New World.

So, mark March 29th in your calendars and set an alarm for 5PM CEST/UTC+2. And then join us on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte for one hour of news and gameplay for the first of the three DLC.

 

Until then, keep an eye on our social channels for some first teasers and information on Season 4 and especially the first DLC.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all next week!

Season 4 is coming in 2022

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,  

if you watched today’s news-packed Anno stream, you will have already seen our big announcement: Season 4 is coming to Anno 1800 in 2022! It’s true- thanks to your overwhelming passion and support, we have decided to support Anno 1800 for another year of industrialized city-building. 

As we are just getting started on this journey, there are only a few things we can share with you today:

  • Season 4 will once again consist of three new DLCs, which will arrive throughout 2022
  • Following Season 3’s focus on further fleshing out the Old World, we will now turn our eyes to the New World
  • As such, we won’t be adding an all-new session to the game
  • We are, however, aware of the building space issues in the New World and have kept that in mind for our plans for Season 4
  • Following today’s announcement of scenarios making their return to Anno 1800, we plan to ship at least one new scenario with each Season 4 DLC
  • As always, each DLC will be accompanied by a free Game Update that will improve the game for all our players

For the full details on Season 4, you will have to be a bit more patient, as we plan to unveil them in March 2022. To tide you over until then, you can not only look forward to all the goodness coming next week (Game Update 13 with our first scenario, the “Vibrant Cities Pack” Cosmetic DLC and our “Plant a Tree” DLC), but also our first Cosmetic DLC of 2022, which is planned for February.

We hope you are just as excited as we are about embarking on another year of shared adventure and want to again thank you for enabling us to do so with your unwavering support.

The Anno Team

We’re participating in the Green Game Jam

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community!

 

Today we want to give you some information on our participation in this year’s Green Game Jam which we have previously briefly mentioned on World Environment Day.

So, what is the Green Game Jam?

Let’s start with quickly defining what a “Game Jam” is:

In its most basic form, it’s a time-limited contest during which participants create a working video game (or at least a working prototype) in just a few days. Nowadays, there are quite a few different Game Jams organized in a bigger way, which differ in scope, goals and rules.

 

The Green Game Jam is a bit different from most others since it’s focused on live games, meaning: It’s not about creating completely new games but about creating new game modes or other activities for existing games.  The goal is to brainstorm and prototype ways to combat climate change and portray those via these games.

The idea itself is a result of the creation of the “Playing for the Planet Alliance”, an initiative by various companies related to video games, following the Climate Summit in New York with the goal to make game development more sustainable and reduce emissions in video game development. Ubisoft is amongst its members.

Check the links above for additional info.

What’s this year’s GGJ about?

This year’s Green Game Jam is focused on forests, but split into two themes:

Play4Forests is about forests on land, focusing on the conservation and reforestation of areas around the globe.

Glowing, Glowing, Gone on the other hand is about “underwater forests”: Coral Reefs which support many different kinds of fish and other marine life.

Several different game studios participate in the Green Game Jam, and from today on you can vote for your favourite project over on this website. The winner will be announced on June 25th.

All participants pledged to implement their idea into their game, to raise awareness for the above-mentioned issues, so let’s talk about our participation.

Where do we come into play?

We were quickly on board with participating in the Green Game Jam and ultimately decided to go for the “Play4Forests” theme which we thought would be a great fit for Anno 1800:

We want to create awareness for sustainability and explore the interdependencies in eco systems which are barely present in Anno 1800 despite it being set in the age of industrialization.

Prior to the Game Jam itself where we came up with our concept, we were able to attend various workshops and presentations to educate and inspire the team on these topics.

What’s our concept for this year’s GGJ?

Anno is about growing settlements into huge metropolises, about massive production chains and vast amounts of resources being produced and shipped around the world. And with Anno 1800, all this happens in the age of industrialization, where players have to build new polluting factories and can achieve completely new population records – but the idea of sustainable growth is barely present.

Our idea, therefore, is to put this aspect more into the spotlight with the following concept:

Players would start on an untouched island with low population and are required to create a sustainable city. If you don’t keep the downsides of your growth in mind and find measures to counter-act them, your island’s eco-system and your city will ultimately collapse. These can be things like only growing monocultures leading to decreased fertility, aggressive deforestation leading to deserted island and over-fishing would rule the oceans out as food source at a later date.

Have a look at the concept art below to get an idea of what we have in mind: From an untouched island over a small settlement to a failed first attempt. Followed by a more sustainable second attempt.

As a twist, we’ll also be introducing a rogue-like element here: Unlike in the real world, you will be able to try again and improve on your previous attempts. Not only with the knowledge gained from this last attempt, but also with technological improvements you can research, and which will stay unlocked for all future attempts after being unlocked once.

All this would come as a completely new, separate game mode to Anno 1800 – no worries, you won’t suddenly need to reorganize your islands 😉

Next steps

Right now, we’re still rather busy with “The High Life”. Therefore, we’re planning to release this new game mode later this year, currently aiming for December 14th (keep in mind the date is not 100% set in stone yet) and will provide you with more information closer to that date

For now, head over to Playing 4 The Planet to vote for us! (the mode will be developed independent of the result)

 

And of course, check out the websites for Play4Forests and Glowing, Glowing, Gone and sign the petitions to do your part to protect the forests.

Try out Anno 1800 for free this weekend!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Are you still debating if Anno 1800 is the game for you? Or do you know people who aren’t convinced Annoholics yet? Then wait no longer since we got the solution for either scenario to celebrate the launch of Season 3:

From February 25th till March 1st  you can play Anno 1800 for free!

This Free Weekend version contains the full main game (without any of the DLC) and is completely compatible with the regular version of Anno 1800 in multiplayer. The ideal opportunity to start a co-op game and help your friends set up their first industrial metropolis.

Even better: If you decide to purchase the game after testing (it’s currently reduced by 50% in the Ubisoft Store), you can simply continue your savegame from the test period!

 

The pre-load is already possible on Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Launcher, the Free Weekend itself will start on Thursday. You can see the exact times for your region below.

 

Enjoy the Anno 1800 Free Weekend – and don’t forget to tell your friends! 😉

Union Update: It’s “Docklands” release day!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hello Annoholics!

 

It’s release day for “Docklands”! You can now download and play the first DLC of Season 3!

Not only will this allow you to construct your very own modular warehouse district to make more efficient use of your harbour area, but also give you access to the new “Export/Import Contracts” feature. With those you can exchange goods at specific rates, even in large quantities, which allows you to specialize your economy and even focus exclusively on certain goods while importing the rest via contracts.

The Docklands and its modules allow you to turn your harbours into global trade hubs which you can make shine additionally by various new harbour ornaments like *drumroll* two different kinds of lighthouses! We know you’ve been waiting for those 😉

More details and screenshots can be found in our extensive DevBlog from last week!

 

Alongside the new DLC, we’ll be releasing Game Update 10, with various improvements as well as some new features free to all players. We have published the Release Notes yesterday and you can find them here.

 

 

Both “Docklands” as well as Game Update 10 released today at 6 PM CET (12 PM EST, 9 AM PST) and the DLC can then also be purchased as individually for 6,99€ in the Ubisoft Store, Epic Store and on Steam (for owners of the Steam version of Anno 1800).

“Docklands” is also part of the Season 3 Pass – you can read all details about it here.

 

We’re excited to see you create your very own Docklands and are looking forward to your feedback on the new features! Don’t forget to share some screenshots!

 

 

 

Union Update: Season 3 announcement – FAQ

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community!

 

It was great to see your reactions to the Season 3 announcement on Tuesday, the excited comments, the speculations – and the questions.

We’ve seen a few questions pop up repeatedly over the last days and instead of answering them on an individual basis again and again, we though the Anno Union is the perfect place to reach all of you at once ?

 

How are the Export/Import Contracts integrated into the statistics menu?

Via the “Storage” tab you can get an overview over all previous contracts fulfilled by Captain Tobias. Just like you can with your regular trade routes.

Like all trade, however, the goods exported and imported are not included in the production overview, as production and trade are two different systems in the game which work differently. The production tab checks for constant production and consumption, it presents absolute, reliable values.

Trading, however, is unreliable and therefore can’t be properly calculated into the production tab. Ships have differing traveling time, can be sunk, wind may affect their speed, they may have to wait to fulfil their trades etc. Incorporating goods from these sources as guesses would make the production tab unreliable, and therefore not useful anymore.

 

The new Docklands buildings and ornaments look like they might put yet more strain on my limited harbour space. Could you increase the harbour space?

Generally, with the introduction of the harbor street and being able to place certain buildings in the water instead of only along the coast, you will already be able to use the available space of your harbour area a lot better – especially if you like to play around with buildings to get the perfect layout. Add to that the modules of the “Docklands” like the depot, which are more space efficient than their regular counterparts.

However, we are not planning to increase the size of your islands’ harbour area. All maps are separated into island and ocean areas. The harbour area is always part of the island area and designed to expand from a certain line along the coast outwards to a certain limit. Reworking and expanding the construction space in the harbour area for all islands would have a significant impact on the game’s balancing and can further lead to issues impacting the stability of the game, AI navigation, and in certain cases, even corrupt savegames.

 

“Docklands” let’s you import goods from other DLC like “Land of Lions”. Will “Tourist Season” and “The High Life” provide similar interconnections between the DLC?

Yes, all 3 DLC will provide a certain level of interconnectivity with previously released content. Our goal with Season 3’s DLC is to offer you multiple paths to reach your goal. Owning another DLC will not make your life easier or be the “best” solution, but it will provide you with more options as to how to approach certain challenges.

 

“Tourist Season” sounds like it’s rather focused on beauty builders. As a record builder, will I also enjoy the contents of this DLC?

All DLC of Season 3 offer options for both beauty builders and record builders. The restaurants you’ll build to satisfy your tourists’ needs will also have an impact on the residents living nearby. Just like you might also order a burger at a restaurant nearby and won’t just leave it to tourists and other visitors. This might lead to residents e.g. consuming less bread or beer. Making the most of the bonuses provided by restaurants can be a great strategy to reduce the consumption of certain goods and instead focus on the production of other wares.

 

The skyscrapers in the gameplay footage to “The High Life” look strange, just like extended Investor residences.

Many of you have pointed out that the skyscrapers prototype footage seen in the Season 3 trailer and stream look suspiciously as if someone had just “stretched” our existing investor residences higher- which is coincidentally exactly what they are! It is very common in game development to try and reach a playable prototype state for experimentation as quickly as possible by “kitbashing” any existing assets and features you already have, so you can first test a feature’s potential before wasting valuable time only to find out later that it wasn’t much fun in the first place.

This is an aspect of development that is rarely seen outside of perhaps “making of” videos and usually never makes it into a proper trailer, though in this case we chose to do so as we thought it would be cool to give you a glimpse at our third DLC that is coming this Summer. One of the challenges we have when presenting a new Season to you is that, contrary to many other games, all DLCs for Anno 1800 are being developed by the same core team here in Mainz – which means that by the time we announce a new Season Pass, we are knee-deep in the development of our first DLC, but don’t have any polished gameplay from DLCs 2 and 3 to share (this was also true for Season 1 and 2).

TL; DR: The skyscrapers seen in the Season 3 trailer are just early prototypes based on existing assets, and do not represent the final quality of the feature, which will allow you to build truly modular high rises of various shapes and looks.

 

 

We know there’re many more questions out there and we’re currently planning to give you a Q&A opportunity soon. Keep in mind, though, that some answers will have to wait a bit until we’re closer to the release of the respective DLC.

 

Current technical issues

We have seen reports from players still having their Ubisoft Connect Rewards locked in the game. In that case, please verify the game files of Anno 1800 and then restart Ubisoft Connect. This should solve the problem.

If you’re missing your Chess Table ornaments: no worries, our team is currently looking into this.

 

Additionally, our team is currently investigating possible causes for the freezes and lags some of you have been reporting since Game Update 9.3. We will keep you updated on this topic and are hoping to have more news soon.

 

Winners of the “guess a DLC name” contest

Finally, it’s time to announce the winners from our last contest where we asked you to guess the names of the 3 DLC of the Season 3 Pass: “Docklands”, “Tourist Season” and “The High Life”.

Among everyone who guessed correctly, we have randomly selected 3 winners from both the German and the English comment section. Congratulations to:

marc1808

IDDDS

Killangel42

VaIhaIla_Rising

Sycend

Justin_One_Shot

We will contact you over the next few days via the e-mail address you’re using for your Ubisoft account to send you your Season 3 Pass key. So please keep an eye on your inbox ?

 

We wish all of you a great week, stay safe!

Announcing the Season 3 Pass

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Earlier today we used our latest AnnoCast-Stream to finally lift the curtain on the highly anticipated Season 3 Pass for Anno 1800, which will add three exciting new DLCs to the game throughout 2021. As mentioned, when we first teased Season 3 last Fall, the three new DLCs will be focused on your home session in the Old World, giving you new challenges to master, residents to attract, and monuments to construct.

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DLC 1: Docklands (coming February 23, 2021)

Season 3 kicks off in two weeks with the release of our first DLC, “Docklands”. This will allow you to construct a modular new warehouse district, the eponymous Docklands, in your harbor, turning it into a global trade hub. The Docklands building is inspired by the “Speicherstadt” in Hamburg, Germany, which is not only the world’s largest warehouse district, but also a globally recognized UNESCO World Heritage site.

To allow you to truly live the fantasy of being a trade mogul, “Docklands” not only allows you to completely remodel your harbor, but also gives you access to import/ export contracts. These allow you to exchange specific goods at set rates with several trading partners, enabling you to further specialize your economy by focusing on certain goods while reliably receiving missing wares via import and export with your partners.

To properly show your mercantile prowess to the world, “Docklands” also includes a variety of new harbor-themed ornaments to deck out your island with.

DLC 2: Tourist Season (planned for Spring 2021)

Our second DLC “Tourist Season” introduces a new residential tier to the Old World, the aptly named Tourists. Whereas the Visitors we already have in the game are only, well, visiting your island for a day, Tourists want to stay awhile, and thus need proper accommodations: the new hotels. To ensure that tourists reach their accommodations and all the hot spots places on your island– like hotels, museums, or new restaurants – it is necessary to establish a network of bus lines to carry them around.

Should you succeed in attracting enough Tourists, you may even get the chance to construct a new monument inspired by a world-famous tourist attraction of the 19th century…

DLC 3: The High Life (planned for Summer 2021)

Ending Season 3 on a high note both figuratively and metaphorically is “The High Life”, which introduces new modular skyscrapers as an alternative and space-efficient housing for your Investors. Of course, rising buildings go hand in hand with rising desires, so you should expect your Investors to develop an interest in commercial goods created in the new Multi-Factory, which they will be able to buy in your Malls.

Finally, “The High Life” allows you not only to reach new city-building heights by reaching new citizen records, but also with the construction of the game’s largest building, the monumental Empire Tower!

 Bonus Content

While all DLCs will once again be available for stand-alone purchase, there are a few benefits for buyers of the Season 3 Pass. You will receive three exclusive ornaments immediately upon your purchase, each of them themed after one of our new DLCs: the Cyclopean Anchor, a Traveler’s Kiosk and the Endless Skies Memorial. Buyers of the Season 3 Pass will also be able to get all three DLCs for 19,99€/$, which represents a saving of around 5€/$ versus individual purchases.

Best of all, the Season 3 Pass is available today, so you can already enjoy the three new ornaments and use them to pass the time until “Docklands” releases in two weeks.

New ways to buy Anno 1800 for Season 3

While the Season 3 Pass is the best way to enjoy all the new content for our existing Anno 1800 players, we also want to offer new ways to users who want to jump into the age of the industrial revolution in time for Season 3. That is why we have created two new editions of the game that will be available through Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store, starting today. At the same time, we are removing the previously available Gold Edition and Complete Editions for new buyers (existing owners will, of course, keep all their content, and still be able to re-download it in the future)

Anno 1800: Complete Edition Year 3 – 109,99 €/ $

The best way to jump aboard Anno 1800 is the new Complete Edition Year 3, which includes the full version of Anno 1800, the Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade with the Anarchist character, as well as all three Season Passes. This edition represents savings of around 30€/ $ versus buying all included content individually.

Anno 1800: Gold Edition Year 3 – 79,99€

If you just want to dive right into the new Season 3 content and worry that all previously released DLCs may overwhelm you, the Gold Edition Year 3 is the right choice for you. It includes the full version of Anno 1800, the Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade with the Anarchist character, and the Season 3 Pass. This edition represents savings of around 10€/$ versus buying all included content individually.

We are, of course, also still offering the classic standard version of the game for 59,99€/ $, giving to anyone looking to build their personal industrial empire the maximum flexibility in how they want to get started.

Thank you all for your tireless passion and support for Anno 1800, which has not only allowed us to reach more than 1.7M players by the end of 2020, but also to support the game with a third year of new content and free game updates that will improve the game for our community!

Stay safe,

The Anno 1800 Team

We cordially invite you once more…

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

 

On Tuesday, February 9th, at 5PM CET (11 AM EST, 8 AM PST) we will present to you our plans for Season 3 and give you a first look at its DLC and the Free Game Updates.

So, mark the day in your calendars! We’re looking forward to seeing you next week over on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

 

And another piece of news we know you have been waiting for: Next Tuesday will also be the release day for Game Update 9.3, which amongst other things includes a fix for the issues with the Ubisoft Connect Rewards some of you were struggling with. We will share the full Release Notes with you next week.

 

 

Oh… one last thing: Let’s make the announcement a bit more interesting and add a small challenge!

We’re giving away three Season 3 Pass keys! The only thing you need to do is to guess the name of one of its DLC correctly. * Nothing easier than that, right? 😉

 

*Winners will be chosen at random among all correct answers. Only one key per person. Only answers below this post on the Anno Union till Monday 8th, 11:59 PM CET (5:59 PM EST, 2:59 PM PST), are valid entries.