We are back with a short update from the development front, the winners of our #annophony contest and a new episode of our AnnoAfternoon community show.

Many of you have heard it already: thanks to your relentless support is Anno 1800 the fastest selling game in the franchise’s history! And to celebrate that milestone, we decided to honor your first week achievements in a special way:

Improvements and future updates for Anno 1800
We entered week three after the big maiden voyage and we are busy bees here in our studio in Mainz. The game had an incredible start thanks to our communities out there and our current main objective is to finish the second patch for Anno 1800.
And since launch of the game, we browsed through an incredible amount of discussions and reports from our own forums as well as community platforms out there. Backed up by our own game analytics, we got together a lot of valuable data which helps us to improve Anno 1800 step by step.

But Anno is a true giant when it comes to the amount of features and simulations running in the back ground. And because of that, any changes to the game (if it is a QoL improvement or a bugfix) have to be validated to make sure that not one fix does not result in a new although different issue to appear.
But we got together a handy checklist for the second patch which we will share with you, together with an ETA
for the next patch, next week.

And if you are curious about upcoming content, Dr. Hugo Mercier will soon appear on the big Anno stage and we will reveal his background but also interesting gameplay twists in a future DevBlog.
We can already tell that the Anarchist is not only a visionary; he has quite unconventional tools to force his ideas onto his people.
We know that you are also curious when the first free content updates in form of the statistic building and the coop mode will go live. We have to ask you for a bit more patience here, as we think that balancing, improvements and bugfixes have the highest priority right now. As always, we will give keep you in the loop as soon as we have news to share.

Anno Afternoon May 3. at 3pm UTC
How about a trip back to Waffletown, the peaceful village John and Guddy created during our AnnoAfternoon community stream! How did the residents fare in the last few weeks of stream abstinence? Is there still enough schnapps or has everything exploded in the meantime? Find out in the next Anno Afternoon and help us to get everything back on track!
Tune in this Friday, May 3^rd at 3pm UTC on: https://www.twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

Annophonics and other community creations
We asked you to create a love letter to the Anno series and today, we are happy to announce the winners of our #annophony contest! And so much love went into your submissions of the contest that we cannot wat to channel your creative energy in future contests.

And the winner of the first place is: HolyDaDeViL’s very special Anno Sanctum

True craftsmanship and passion came together to create something truly special: a marvelous Anno 1800 sanctum. We seriously have to re-think our decorations in our streaming room after seeing this one! Congratulations for the first place, we will get in contact with you via forum DM to send the vinyl soundtrack on its way to you.

And without further ado, the second place goes to: Lord_Janok and one day in the life of an Annoholic!

This one made us chuckle many times but beside the great humor, the video is a true display of dedication and passion of fans who follow our series for two decades now.
We will also get in contact with you via forum DM so that you soon can call the signed Anno 1800 t-shirt your own!

As we are already working on new concepts for future contests, what are the Unions idea for small and big creative or other competitions?

Help and tips from Crinricts Gaming World
You say that this gaming and support blog is a staple in many gaming communities for years now. Thankfully, Crinrict seems to have found a liking in the 19. Century flair and we are happy to see that the first Anno 1800 help articles found a new home in Crinrict’s Gaming World.

And for today’s Union Header, grabbed a moment captured in a wonderful angle by by user @We3kend

Until next time!

It was all the way back at gamescom 2017 when we announced Anno’s steam fueled step into the industrial revolution. 15.000 comments later, we can say that we have not only created the biggest Anno game to date, but also that all of this was made possible thanks to the collaboration with and the unwavering support of our Union members. 

Today, we are happy to announce that Anno 1800 is leaving its harbor here in the Ubisoft Blue Byte Mainz office for its grand maiden voyage, ready to bring its proud heritage of 21 years of city building and exploration to players around the world.

We also want to send a big, heartfelt “thank you” from the whole development team to all Anno players and Anno Union supporters out there. This journey has been something truly special and the result is a game made with an incredible amount of passion by old veterans, new talents and our dearest fans alike.

Join our AnnoCast Launch Party
To celebrate the big launch of Anno 1800, we want to invite every one of you to celebrate with us in a live stream, which will happen tomorrow at 1pm UTC.
We will host the AnnoCast Launch Party where we will go on a serious trip down memory lane, eat cake, raffle out Anno swag aplenty and chat with you about the development or maybe even turn the tables once and comment on other streamer’s playstyle.
This stream is dedicated to you, our loyal fans, who made the game possible in the first place: April 16 1pm UTC at twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte
Our first taste of our upcoming fan site kit
We have been talking for a while about our fan site kit, but so far kept you waiting. That wait is finally ending, as the first version of the fan site kit is now available (though we will add more stuff to it over time).

For now, you can grab a customized Anno 1800 streaming layout, as well as the first wallpaper and a variety of social media assets here: Anno Union Fansite Kit Preview

Release times and day one time
As a reminder, below are the global release times of Anno 1800. While Annoholics in Asia and Oceania have already set their sails, other regions of the globe will get to join them over the coming day. Should you find yourself craving some Anno-tainment in these last hours of waiting, you can already pop over to twitch and YouTube to see more of the game, or read up on the first reviews that came out today.

Keep in mind that the below world map only applies to unlock times for Uplay. Timings on the Epic Games store and Steam vary, as we are reliant on our partners for these launches on their platforms.

We also want to remind owners of the physical copy of the game that there will be a 23GB download for our Day 1 Patch, as we have been busy further improving the game since we started producing the game discs a few weeks back.

In the spirit of reminiscing on 1 ½ years of the Anno Union, we would love to hear your stories about your favorite memories and moments from this exciting time.

Today we are short on text, but have lots of videos to entertain you in-between those lengthy Open Beta sessions this weekend. But first- your chance to win something!

Show us your love for Anno and win a vinyl soundtrack
As announced during yesterday’s AnnoCast twitch stream, we are giving away one of the limited Anno 1800 Vinyl Soundtracks from our friends at Blackscreen Records (which we will happily sign if requested by the winner). We also have one runner-up prize, which is a signed Anno 1800 t-shirt. To claim this piece of Anno history for yourself, you have to get creative, and perhaps even a bit crazy. In short: We want you to show us your love for the Anno series. The more inventive, the better! Whether you create a music video or record an audio play, we want to see you express your creativity as it relates to Anno.

Show us your creations in this forum thread here, and make sure to use the hastag #Annophony if you want to share them with the world on twitter. You can submit your content until 11:59pm UTC on Friday April 26.

Enjoy our Accolades trailer
With only 4 more days to go until the big day, we have released a new trailer for you all to enjoy, including some of the accolades Anno 1800 has received from press so far.

 

Anno 1800 Influencer Challenge
Our colleagues at Ubisoft US have challenged four popular strategy gaming influencers to see which one of them would make the best 19th century island governor.

For challenge number one, they had to compete to see who could reach 5.000 citizens first. Fair to say that their the approaches (and ethical standards of living) they settled on to reach this goal differed a lot between our contestants…

Alex the Rambler

Blitz

Draegast

Drew Durnil

We hope that our contestants provided you with some inspirations for our own Anno 1800 adventures! Check back next week for part two of the challenge, as they race to be the first player to reach the New World!

Reminder: Play the Open Beta to claim your ornament

Don’t forget to play the Anno 1800 Open beta this weekend to claim your chess table ornament for the full version. The Open Beta is available to everyone via Uplay and the Epic Games store.

After rubbing our eyes in disbelief when looking at the calendar, we have to face the facts- Anno 1800 is only six days away from launching the franchise into the age of the industrial evolution!

In last week’s update, we extensively covered the topic of our Open Beta (reminder: everyone can participate via Uplay and Epic Games store between April 12-14 to earn a fancy Open Beta ornament for their city’s parks). This week, we turn our attention to answering many of your burning questions surrounding the game’s launch (such as pre-loading, day 1 patch, when the game goes live etc.). We also have some live streams to announce, and encourage you all to take another look at our beautiful open beta trailer. So let’s get started!

Let’s talk about launch

Pre-Loading:
Pre-Loading for anyone with a digital pre-order on Uplay, Steam or the Epic Games Store will begin on April 12 at 3pm UTC . The total download size will be around 25 GB. Update: Pre-loading will start on April 11 at 3pm UTC, and not 9am as had been previously communicated. We apologize for this change.

Day 1 Patch:
We have been busy bees and worked hard to further improve Anno 1800 after we shipped the gold discs off to the factory to produce all the physical copies of the game. That means that anyone who bought a physical copy of the game will need to download our Day 1 Patch before they can start playing (the patch is already part of the pre-load for digital buyers). The Day 1 Patch will come in at roughly 23GB.

Launch timing:
We are currently ironing out the last details and will give you an update on the exact launch timing as soon as possible.

Removing Beta clients
As previously announced, you won’t be able to carry over existing downloads or save games from any of our test phases (Technical Test, Closed Beta or Open Beta), so feel free to delete them to free up space.

Open Beta trailer
This should give you answers to the most pressing questions regarding the launch. But before you have to worry about that, there’s out Open Beta coming this week! And what better way to get into the Anno mood than with another look at our Open Beta trailer?

This week’s live streaming
With only one more week to go, we will of course have some more streams for you all to enjoy as we count down the last final days until Open Beta and launch.

The entertainment already starts tonight, as we have granted select influencers and media early access to the Open Beta, which they are free to stream as they see fit. You can keep an eye on all available streams here: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Anno%201800

Then we have our latest AnnoCast on Thursday at 3.30 pm UTC. Join us one last time (before launch) as we play the game and answer your questions. Plus, there are rumors that our Pioneers Edition and the limited edition vinyl soundtrack will drop in for a live unboxing…

Friday afternoon while have another Anno Afternoon with Guddy and John continuing their Anno 1800 adventures. Join them for a relaxed fun time at 3pm UTC. Hey, with your help, there is a high chance that they manage to push forward into the fourth residential tier!

As always, you can watch out live-streams on our official Ubisoft Blue Byte channel: twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

That’s it for this (very busy, and filled to the brims with Anno-goodness) week. See you in the Open Beta!

In today’s update, we detail everything you need to know about our upcoming Open Beta and reveal the much-requested final system requirements for Anno 1800!

Let’s talk Open Beta
The Open Beta is the perfect opportunity for you to test the game prior to its launch. Starting on April 12 and running until April 14, it will give everyone in the community a final chance to test Anno 1800 prior to its release on April 16.

Open Beta Game Content
You will be able to test a near-final version of the game and see the improvements since our Closed Beta for yourself, including access to the Multiplayer mode. Moreover, while game progression will again be capped at tier 3, we will for the first time invite you all to get your hands on Anno 1800’s story-based campaign, as the complete first Act will be part of the Open Beta.

There’s no NDA, so stream away
With this being an Open Beta, there won’t be a NDA. Therefore, you are not only allowed, but also in fact highly encouraged to share your experiences and to create content, whether it is streaming, videos or resource calculators!

If you’re on Social Media, make sure to use the Hashtags #Anno1800, #AnnoUnion und #Anno1800OB and tag our channel @Anno_EN. That way we can share all your great creations with the rest of the Annoholics community.

Supported languages
We are also happy that the Open Beta will for the first time give Union members a chance to experience the game in all supported languages! As with the full game, the Open Beta will be localized in all of these languages:

Fully localized Text and Audio:
English / German / French / Russian

Fully localized Text:
Italian / Spanish / Japanese / Korean / Polish / Chinese (traditional and simplified)

Save games will not carry over into the full game
Your Open Beta save games won’t carry over into the final version of Anno 1800, so you are free to go absolutely crazy and try wild things without having to worry about long-term repercussions. You also won’t be able to update the Open Beta to the full release version, so feel free to delete the Open Beta as soon as it sends to save space on your hard disk.

We always try to give you some context and explanations for your decisions- so why can’t your save games be carried over? One key reason is the way our AI works in the game. As the Open Beta content is limited to the first three (out of five in the full game) citizen tiers, the AI will of course also be blocked from progressing any further (as to not have an unfair advantage compared to human players). This could lead to issues with the AI if you were to carry your save game over into the full game, where they would suddenly have access to tiers 4 and 5 again. Our top priority is to ensure that you will have the best possible experience playing Anno 1800 on April 16, so to avoid any issues with such scenarios, we decided against carrying over save games. Rest assured that this issue won’t appear in the full version, where there are of course no limitations on the available content (for either AI or human players).

Is there a reward for participating in the Open Beta?
We are glad you asked- yes there is! Participants in our Open Beta will be able to earn the exclusive “Chess Table” decoration, which can be claimed from the Ubisoft Club after launch! All you need to do to earn it is to play at any time during the Open Beta period.
How to play the Open Beta?
Anno 1800’s Open Beta will be available and open to everyone via Uplay or the Epic Games Launcher. You won’t have to register at the Anno Union and can just download the game as soon as the pre-load becomes available from your launcher.

We prepared a chart for you with the release timing of the Open Beta. To make sure you are ready the moment the Open Beta begins, we will also offer pre-loading starting from April 10.

Updated: Always-Online for the Open Beta

We also want to give you a heads-up that the Open Beta will require a constant internet connection to play. Please note that this is not the case with the main game, as you will be able to fully enjoy Anno 1800’s singleplayer modes while being offline! 

The final system specs are here
After spending some additional development time optimizing the game performance following our Closed Beta, we are happy to finally announce the official system requirements of Anno 1800. We tried to break them down into some of the most common settings scenarios to give you a better idea of what to expect.

We have also been hard at work with our friends at Intel to optimize the game for integrated GPUs, and are happy to be able to include some of Intel’s iGPUs in our system requirements matrix (a first for the Anno series!). We hope that this will allow an even wider group of players to explore the industrial revolution with us.
We will stream our panel at this year’s EGX Rezzed live from London
Anno 1800 will be playable at EGX Rezzed 2019. This year’s event, taking place at London’s Tobacco Dock on April 4-6, is an opportunity for you to lead the industrial revolution and try out new gameplay. Also, join Bastian Thun, Anno Community Developer, on the Developer Stage on Thursday 4pm GMT+1 as he provides an insightful commentary into the world of Anno 1800.
You can also head over to their Develop session page to find out more details.

Keep an eye on the Anno Union as we will share the live stream on our website this Thursday at 4pm CET.

Next AnnoAfternoon: Lead the industrial revolution together
Following the stream from EGX on Friday, we will have a new episode of our AnnoAfternoon community show where Guddy and John need your help to steer their empire successfully through the industrial revolution. As always in our community livestreams, you can have an impact on the way we play while meeting other Anno crazy strategy game aficionados.

AnnoAfternoon: Revolutionize together
4pm GMT +1 Live on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte