Hey Anno Community,

We have a packed Union Update with news for you today, so, grab some coffee or some posca and read on.

First: As some of you noticed, we currently have some issues here on the website with the login and comment feature specifically. We’re working on a resolution and hope to soon discuss Anno with you in the comment section again.

Beta sign-up and playtests

A few weeks ago we announced that we’ll be having beta tests later this year and opened registrations. You can still sign up for those playtests by following this link .

Since we have received some questions since: No, don’t worry, invites haven’t been sent yet. These beta playtests still lie a bit further in the future – you can be sure that we’ll let you know both here and across all our other channels as soon as invites have been sent (just so you know when to check your inbox).

Talking about playtests: As mentioned previously, we have already done multiple smaller scale focus tests and diary studies for Anno 117: Pax Romana in the past. These are organized in collaboration with the Ubisoft User Research Labs who are organising similar smaller-scale playtests for all Ubisoft games. We tend to look for a variety of player profiles for those tests and are organizing tests with different focuses. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, you can register here.
Important: This registration does not guarantee you access to any such future playtests but merely adds you to a “pool” of people that the User Research Lab may select candidates from for future playtests.

IGN Fan Fest

For those of you who missed, Anno 117: Pax Romana was at IGN Fan Fest last week! Manuel Reinher, our Creative Director, presented a new feature that’ll be part of Anno 117: Pax Romana – modular ships. We’ve already seen much conversation about this on Reddit and Discord, so feel free to share your speculations and thoughts about it there as well!

Devblogs

After our very obvious hint about diagonal roads back in January, last week we published the first DevBlog dedicated to the road system in Anno 117: Pax Romana, in which we give an overview of what changed from Anno 1800 and what that means for your gameplay experience.

If you like the DevBlog, then we’ve got great news for you! In the next few weeks and months, more DevBlogs will be published here on the Anno Union: the second blog on the road system topic, where we’ll dive deeper into the technical details and the challenges of the new road system; a devblog fully dedicated to the new modular ships feature, to follow up on the IGN Fan Fest showcase; another devblog dedicated to game design, and much more! So, watch this space if you don’t want to miss out on super detailed blogs on what’s going on behind the scenes here at Ubisoft Mainz.

What about modding?

From Anno 1800, we already know very well: some of you love to create and use mods. In fact, the Anno 1800 modding community saw a fantastic increase over the years, creating some absolutely fantastic, creative mods as well as a bunch of useful quality-of-life pieces. We’re very much aware of their contribution to the Anno 1800 community as a whole, and it was therefore something that we were happy to support in 2023 with official mod support and the collaboration with mod.io.

For that reason, we also want to provide mod support for Anno 117: Pax Romana as early as possible.
For release, we can confirm that a mod loader will already be integrated into the game.

Additionally, our colleague Jakob is happy to help you with information to adjust community tools to changed data formats.

There are more ideas and things we want to do but that’s not something we are ready to discuss yet. For now, it was important to us to assure our (modding-)community that modding support is very much on our radar for Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Island Contest

Annoholics, we have a winner! As you may have already guessed from our social post: Congratulations to Logan!  Your design will now become an actual island in Anno 117: Pax Romana and we’re looking forward to sharing updates on its progress with you in the coming months.

As usual, we would of course also like to thank you all for participating in this contest – which quickly became the most popular one of the three, with more than 140 valid entries! The team, especially Level Art, was super impressed by your creativity during the selection process: selecting only 5 entries was a hard task. We’ve put together a collage with all your entries (if yours is missing, apologies: they were A LOT and some of them might have been accidentally missed from this image).

Governor Edition Voting

As you might have guessed from our latest social posts and news, there will be a Collector’s Edition for Anno 117: Pax Romana – the “Governor Edition”. A couple of weeks ago we’ve asked you to vote for your favourite design for the case and the artbook cover of the Governor Edition. The voting was a very close one – today, we share the results here on the Anno Union with you all:

Hey Anno Community,

let us quickly update you on two recent pieces of news!

Register now for beta tests

You can now officially sign up for upcoming beta tests later this year via this website!

We’ll have more information on the exact dates of these tests in the coming months. From all registered players we will randomly draw a certain number of people based on the goals of the tests.

These tests serve to both collect your feedback on the game and its features as well as test performance and stability on all platforms and different kinds of hardware configuration.

The Anno 117: Pax Romana Collectors Edition

Just last week we confirmed with a teaser a question that many of you have already been asking: yes, Anno 117: Pax Romana will receive a Collectors Edition: the “Governor Edition”!

You can register now via this link to not miss any future news on the Governor Edition. We’ll reveal more on the content of the edition later this year…

… but wait, we actually have a little sneak-peak already! In fact, we even need your input!

Right now, until February 21st, you can vote on your favourite design for the Governor Edition’s box, as well as the artbook that’s going to be included in the edition. Follow this link to the poll!

We’re very curious which designs you prefer!

Hey Anno Community,

While we’re in denial that January is already coming to an end – we’re still finishing up all the chocolate stockpiled during the holidays – we thought to have a small recap of the latest news in this Union Update.

Island design contest

Our third and last contest is up and running, Annoholics! Have you always dreamed to have your very own island design for an Anno game? Well, this is the perfect opportunity for you. In this contest, we challenge you to design an island for the Latium region, in Anno 117: Pax Romana. If you would like to submit your entry for a chance to see your island in the game, check the full rules here.

Since we received some questions on the topic of “group submissions” we updated the rules accordingly: two or more people can work together on a single island design.

An update on the Community Statue

Speaking of contests, we thought it was the perfect time for us to share an update on the Community statue! Last August we announced the winner of our first Community Contest – Design a Statue: the mighty Annocius, the god of the 9, created by HiddenMoon79.

A little disclaimer: this is a work-in-progress “highpoly sculpt” of the statue, it will still get texture and colours.

(Which also answers this recent question from Reddit)

Roads? Where we’re going, we… definitely need roads.

Last week, on a very fitting date – January 17th – we shared a little teaser on our social accounts.

And of course, you all at once spotted that something is different compared to previous Anno games. Diagonal roads! We have seen multiple questions on how the road system will work in Anno 117: Pax Romana but fear not: we have got a dedicated DevBlog coming in the next weeks. In the meantime, without too many spoilers on the topic, we would like to address some of the concerns we read in the comments.  

Q: Is this actual game footage or just part of a scene? 

A: Yes, this is a screenshot taken in-game by Oliver, our Community Developer, who diligently placed those roads for this teaser. We think he did a pretty good job, didn’t he?  

Q: What happened to the Anno grid? Did you get rid of it? 

A: No, we didn’t! For all the efficiency builders our there – do not worry, the grid will still be there in Anno 117: Pax Romana. Our dedicated DevBlog mentioned earlier will explain in detail how the road system works, and which improvements we did to the grid compared to Anno 1800 and previous Anno games. 

A wild Town Crier appears!

Yes, Annoholics! You have seen that right – a wild Town Crier has appeared in Anno 117: Pax Romana! You have already noticed how it recreates the scene from our reveal video, but will you see the Town Crier appear somewhere else? Who knows…

We hope you enjoyed our quick recap of the latest news, and the little teaser we sprinkled here and there in the past weeks. We’ve got more news coming, together with insightful DevBlogs on the new Anno… so, watch this space!

Hey Anno Community,

What a year it has been!

Unbeknownst to you, we were all nervously preparing for the announcement of our new project – Anno 117: Pax Romana! Are we good at keeping secrets? YES. Prior to the reveal, whenever we noticed comments in chat during livestreams or full discussions on Discord or Reddit about a “Roman Anno”, we would secretly cheer inside. So, how often do WE think about the Roman Empire? Every. Single. Day.

It was a proud moment for us to see Anno 117: Pax Romana on the big Ubisoft Forward screen back in June, but seeing your reaction felt even more special.

Immortalising your omnipresent hope for a Roman Anno throughout the years, was also a big highlight for us – together with the help of the beloved Town Crier!

Not too long after the reveal, we jumped into the Community Contests dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana. Seeing your creativity in action was a blast, both with the Statue design and the quest writing. A big shout out to all participants and the winners of the two contests, once again! In January, we’ll have a first look at the Annocius statue for you and will later also update you on the “Weapon from the Stars” quest, when the team has done some more progress on the topic.

Last but not least, during our End of Year stream, we confirmed that Anno 117: Pax Romana will be available on Steam from Day 1! For a more detailed update on the game and what we’re currently working on, you can check out this blog.

2024 also marked the end of development for Anno 1800, with the release of the last three Cosmetic DLCs: we started the year with Steampunk vibes, then sailed through the high seas with some Pirates ornaments, and ended the year with sparkles and unicorns for the End of an Era. We’ve discussed at length how bittersweet this feels in last week’s blog, so you know that this game will always hold a special place in our hearts.

So, without getting too emotional (again), let’s celebrate this special moment with some new Anno 1800 wallpapers to complete your collection! Here you can now find the artworks for the Steampunk Pack, the Pirate Cove Pack, and the End of an Era Pack.

Every end of year, it’s a tradition to go through your Anno 1800 achievements. So, let’s see what has happened since 2019 by updating an old image from the week after release with new numbers – and comparing the two!

And then, five and a half years later… look at those numbers!

A look into 2025…

Alright, that was 2024 – what about the next year?

As you might know, good things always come in three – of course we’re talking about the Community Contests dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana! So far, you’ve excelled at the tasks you were given, but will you be up for the third and final one? To give you a tiny hint… the screenshots we recently shared might be a good inspiration! The live date for this contest is still not final, but we’re planning for early 2025, around January. Therefore, watch this space if you don’t want to miss out!

We won’t stop there, of course: You can expect many more news on Anno 117: Pax Romana next year. This is when we’ll deep-dive into the game, expect:

• Many DevBlogs
• Trailers
• Livestreams
• Playtests
• Events
• … more?

2025 is going to be a big year for Anno 117: Pax Romana. We know you’re excited to see more of the game and we’re very much looking forward to showing you… everything! More or less 😉

In the meantime, if you haven’t done it yet, don’t forget to wishlist Anno 117: Pax Romana on Ubisoft Connect, Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.

And with that, we’re saying “goodbye for now”: We wish you Happy Holidays and will take a few weeks of rest ourselves as well.

We’ll be back in January and can’t wait for what 2025 will bring.

The Anno Team

Hey Anno Community!

Last week we released the “End of an Era” Pack, and we didn’t choose the name as a joke: With this Cosmetic DLC ends the postlaunch phase for Anno 1800 – about five and a half years after the initial release in April 2019.

What a ride it has been!

Announced in August 2017, Anno 1800 was at the center of everything we were doing for many years: from the big exciting announcement and the launch of the Anno Union over many, many DevBlogs, fan meetings at gamescom, playtests and livestreams to the release, over four seasons of postlaunch gameplay DLC and then two more years of support with Cosmetic DLC and updates. It’s certainly been quite a journey!

We were also happy to ultimately add mod support to the game (and see the modding community flourish), successfully launch Anno 1800 on consoles and celebrate both the Anno series 25th, as well as Anno 1800th 5th birthday with you all.

However, ultimately, this didn’t overshadow the fantastic success that Anno 1800 had become or the incredibly appreciation we have seen from all of you, motivating us to continue working on the game throughout all these years.

Certainly, we did not plan for Anno 1800 to have such a long post-launch life, or to see so many smaller and bigger expansions. Looking back, we’re incredibly proud of our work over the last years – even while we are at the same time also happy to close this chapter of our history and start writing a new one. Now in ancient Rome instead of in the time of the Industrial Revolution.

We’re also incredibly proud of having had YOU all with us on this journey! We couldn’t be luckier with this awesome community we have – that is (even when something goes wrong) polite and patient, welcoming to new players, incredibly inventive and has created some of the best memories of our careers as devs.

You’re playing a huge role in what we’re doing, in many decisions we take and in why we can work in jobs that bring us joy.

Thank you!

Team Anecdotes & Messages

Therefore, to round things off, we think it’s only appropriate to finish today’s blog with some messages and memories from the team:

Let’s start with two easter eggs that we think haven’t been found yet!

We’re not going to reveal the full details but… let’s imagine there’s a first-person mode that lets you use one of the swan boats from the “Pedestrian Zone” pack. Now, let’s assume there’s a button that lets you… do some acrobatics with the boat. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Johannes, Senior Gameplay Programmer

If you’ve really messed up the water quality in the “Eden Burning” scenario, nature is protesting. Vehemently. At the beach.

Nico, Lead Programmer

Then there are of course some development stories…

Did you know we, for a while, seriously considered a scenario involving aliens in Season 4? It was supposed to draw on some 19^th century science-fiction works and involve a defense against non-human invaders.

Dominik, Game Designer

Did you know that when the team first introduced cats and dogs to the game, they assigned them the regular “pedestrian kid” behaviour since we didn’t have a specific “pedestrian animal” behaviour yet? The result was… interesting, with gangs of cats and dogs heading to the zoo to watch the other animals there.

Jan, Gameplay Programmer

The time we forgot to remove the “strange idol” item from a cancelled questline in DLC 12. We hoped you wouldn’t notice but… of course you all did. And not just that, this even resulted in some elaborate conspiracy theories about secret messages and teasers (and we never do teasers, as you know).

Jannika, Game Writer

Wow, End of an Era is here, and my memories from working on 1800 are flowing in, everything from starting my first job for a big game publisher on Anno 1800 in 2021 till my last work on 1800 – the Eldritch pack.
 Anno 1800 has given me so much joy and experience in working with game development, people and crafting great content for you, the player.

A couple of highlights are:

• Introducing New World Rising in our Season 4 Trailer.
• Being in charge of the Seasonal Decorations pack on the QA side (still annoyed it got released with the wrong icon, the placeholder was just that good hahah).
• Working on the creative mode with Dominik, coming up with a lot of suggestions of what to add, like that every resident tier can be built directly, that every zoo and museum module could be built as an ornament – and just so so many ornaments!
• And then, close to the end, when we added the mod support to Anno 1800, the great collaboration between the few of us that were still working on 1800 back then.

All in all, I want to say thank you to all of you – the fans – for supporting the game and our team these years. It’s been amazing and I can’t wait for you to see what Anno 117: Pax Romana has to offer!

Sic Parvis Magna
Jan, Development Tester

Thank you so much for every minute you played at Anno. Your support, your having fun while creating your own little world is the biggest joy and gratification a designer could ask for <3
Thank you for being the most wholesome community I ever joined! Nothing warms my heart like joining the twitch lives and reading your comments on Reddit.

The end of 1800 is just the beginning of a new chapter and the beginning of your new empire!
See you in Rome!

Elisabetta, UI Designer

There’s no doubt that we have one of the most wholesome communities in gaming. Both in the interactions with each other as well in interactions with us from the dev team, the calm, friendly and constructive manner in which you engaged with others made the lives of players and devs (especially mine <3) of Anno 1800 just so much better.

Never change, please, and we’ll all continue to have a great time with Anno.

Oliver, Community Developer

It’s the End of an Era! – The release day of the “End of an Era” Pack that is. Our newest Cosmetic DLC is available now!

As the name very subtly hints at: This is the very last Cosmetic DLC for Anno 1800, and the very last piece of content we have planned for the game.

Accordingly, the “End of an Era” Pack is all about celebrating Anno 1800, its citizens and you and your achievements: decorate houses with colourful lights, hold festivals of light on your public plazas and invite your people to a show they have never seen before.

Oh, and don’t forget the fireworks!

If you want to have a closer look at the contents of this final Cosmetic DLC, check out last week’s Twitch livestream with Laura and Jannika.

You can also get a detailed look at all the new skins and ornaments and learn about the inspirations for this cosmetic pack in our DevBlog.

The “End of an Era” Pack Cosmetic DLC is now available on all platforms for 4,99€ or your regional equivalent.

Creative Festival

Finally, let’s not forget the “Creative Festival” is still ongoing until December 8^th! Join other Anno 1800 fans in sharing your best, favourite or simply wildest screenshots of the game using the DLC and CDLC that were released since 2019.

Which ones are your favourites? Share them on any platform (Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Instagram, …) – we’re looking forward to seeing your creations!

Anno 117: Pax Romana Updates

We’ve also published a few updates and news on Anno 117: Pax Romana very recently!

Check out this blog for news on Steam as well as some first screenshots of the regions Latium and Albion! In addition, in the same blog we’re also sharing a more general development update for the game including some of the topics we have been and currently are working on.

Community Spotlight – Advent Calendar

A very short Community Spotlight for today: On Reddit, user FeistyDivide6619 announced their video advent calendar for Anno 1800. Every day, you can expect a chill video with some Anno 1800 beauty building footage on their YouTube channel.

We love the idea! Why not head over to their channel and check it out?