Hello dear Anno Community and welcome to the first Union Update on our shiny new website! We have several great news for you, so let's get started right away.
Welcome to the new Anno Union
Since Monday the now almost 3 years old Anno Union presents itself in a new, sleeker look. The new website provides several advantages like faster loading times, better optimisation for mobile devices and better support for more than just one game of the Anno series.
You might still see some issues with the layout here and there but we wanted to launch the website now to support the launch of the History Editions and get some feedback from you on the design.
Let us know and share your thoughts in the comments below the announcement.
Game Updates 1.1 for the History Editions
Talking about the History Editions: Thank you for your valuable feedback, your questions and the reports of a few issues with this re-release. Our team is currently investigating these reports and we can already announce a first patch for this week which will address several points on all 4 History Edition games like the language issue on the Steam version of the Anno 1404, the music problem when increasing the game speed in Anno 1503 and more.
We will have more details for you soon.
Currently still under investigation is for example the Anno 1404 History Edition using DirectX 9 instead of newer versions as well as other issues forwarded to us.
As with all Anno 1800 Game Updates before, you will be able to find all patch notes for the History Editions in the “Updates” section.
For the modders – a safe GUID range
As you know, we continue to being impressed and appreciate the work some our community members put into creating mods for Anno 1800. To make it a little bit easier for you when it comes to adjusting your mods to new Game Updates, we now reserved the GUID range 1337471142 to 2147483647 just for you. This range is “safe” and not used by us.
A nostalgic Anno Afternoon live stream
After a longer break, the Anno team is back with a History Edition live stream!
Ubi-Thorlof invites you to a slightly improvised Anno 1602 home office stream, joined by his colleagues Ubi-Hanabi and Ubi-Trenchcoat. To share your Anno 1602 stories and memories and get the chance to win a key for the complete Anno History Collection, tune in this Thursday at 6PM CEST over on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte
and welcome to the all-new Anno Union, your #1 source for any news and updates on Ubisoft’s series of strategy games- straight from the dev team here in Mainz!
When we first launched the original Anno Union alongside Anno 1800’s announcement at gamescom 2017, we did not quite know what to expect. We still remember that after we finished our first press demo of the game, everyone immediately grabbed their phones to see if we already had some comments on our new website. Turns out there were: with several hundred comments during that first week, the Anno Union was immediately off to an incredible (and slightly intimidating) start. Since that hot August day, the Anno team and community have been equally busy, as we published close to 500 items on the Anno Union, which you discussed in almost 20k comments! Thanks to all of your feedback and input, we not only completely reworked the New World into the iteration you see in the game today, but also added features like co-op, statistics or the popular day-and-night cycle. And that’s just a few examples of the many ways the community has shaped the development of the game. All of which contributed to making Anno 1800 the fastest-selling game in the series’ 22-year history!
As mentioned above, we initially did not know what to expect from the Anno Union, and how the community would react to it. As a result, it was all focused on the “here and now” of Anno 1800’s development, with the layout only being intended to support one game.
Going forward, we want the Anno Union to be better suited to supporting the full franchise, starting with the release of the four History Edition version of Anno 1602, 1503, 1701 and 1404 last week. To support a wider range of games and help discoverability, we have put an emphasis on categories and tags, making it easier for you to find the blogs and release notes you want. The entire Union should also be much faster and responsive, in addition to its design.
Keep in mind that this is just day 1 of the journey, and the Anno Union idea has always been about working alongside our community to improve things. You will initially notice some funkiness as older blogs haven’t all been properly tagged yet (did we mention we have almost 500 already?) , and some things may not be fully adapted to the new design and layout yet. Despite this, we wanted to already launch the new version of the Union in preparation of upcoming Game Updates for the History Edition releases, and to be able to incorporate your feedback as we fine-tune things over the coming weeks.
It’s been an amazing journey over the past three years, and we are very excited to have you all with us- hopefully for many years to come!
Last Tuesday, June 2, marked the release of the “Bright Harvest” DLC and Game Update 8!
Boost your agriculture by building silos and state-of-the-art tractors, and beautify your islands with additional farming and industrial ornaments. The farming revolution is already well underway!
Game Update 8 additionally provides you with a convenient item overview, bigger warehouses, the Great Eastern steamer and many smaller improvements and fixes which you can find here.
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Thanks to your feedback following the release, our team is currently working on Game Update 8.1 to address some of the concerns you voiced. We will have more info on it closer to its release around Mid-June.
Get ready for analogue Anno 1800
And another kind of announcement was made last week which we are extremely excited about: On Thursday Kosmos Spiele (whom you may be familiar with from games such as “Catan” and “Legends of Andor”) announced “Anno 1800: The Board Game”, releasing this autumn.
Famed game designer Martin Wallace, who has proven his industrial expertise with award-winning games such as “Age of Steam” and “Brass: Birmingham” will be handling this version of Anno 1800, which we are very excited about ourselves. Follow Kosmos’ Instagram channel for updates if you’re interested in developing your island and competing with friends or family around a table.
The “Seat of Power” Screenshot Contest
We also have some winners to announce! In late April we started the “Seat of Power” screenshot contest and asked you to share the most epic pictures of your palaces with us – and wow, we received a lot of stunning examples of our community’s creativity! From smaller coastal palaces to enormous inner-city complexes. From palaces with vast parks and flower beds over palaces with an integrated zoo or museum, broad triumph and parade streets and intricate hedge-mazes to dedicated courtyards for specific events and functions.
Understandably, we had a hard time deciding on the winners and want to thank all participants for sharing their creations with us.
Let’s then get to the winners who can look forward to some great gear from our friends at Corsair.
First place, a CORSAIR VOID Headset, CORSAIR IRONCLAW Wireless Mouse and CORSAIR MM350 mousepad, goes to justVera.
This massive palace complex not only incorporates a Zoo, Museum and Botanical Garden, but does so in an extremely elegant way with plenty of green to separate the different modules and paths inviting for a stroll through the vast park. Directly connected to the World’s Fair on the other side of the park and a broad street and park leading to the palace from the harbour our team was deeply impressed by the amount of planning that went into the creation of it.
In second place, the lucky owner to be of a CORSAIR IRONCLAW mouse and CORSAIR MM350 mousepad, comes ChrisX86!
We really liked the symmetry of his palace complex which at the same time still including variety like the hedge maze or differently styled flower beds and courtyards. While less green and more focused on mosaic and plaza tiles than others, the palace does not feel stuffed with decoration but provides plenty of space, offering a calm oasis with resting spots in a busy city.
In third place we have adam5909’s lake palace on Crown Falls which won him a CORSAIR HARPOON mouse and MM300 mousepad.
Far from the bustling, noisy city, this palace sits on Crown Falls’ large lake and offers a spectacular panorama thanks to the waterfalls in the distance. While smaller in size than some other palaces, plenty of parks, hedge mazes and other botanical arrangements make this a calm and quiet retreat for any ruler or magnate with a perfect view in all directions.
All winners will be contacted by us via direct message or forum PM so please keep an eye on your inbox!
Believe us, it was a tough choice to make and our team decided to add two honourable mentions for their different approaches to the topic of palace-building.
One is gntherfrank for his not only idyllically calm and green but also very realistically looking palace and garden. You can easily imagine coming across such a palace in real life, a retreat for a local count or duke while over the years the nearby city has grown closer and closer, slowly integrating the palace into the cityscape.
The other is Moppelkotze09 for the sheer insanity when it comes to the scale of the city design. While the palace itself is not as big as others, city and palace are directly interwoven in their design with the latter not only being at the centre of it all but also dividing the former into four districts. The amount of ornaments and parks built into this project impressed us so much that it indeed deserved an honourable mention.
Finally, again, a big thank you to everyone who sent us screenshots of their palace or posted them on the forums! We can’t wait to see what you manage to create with more ornaments and buildings of the following updates.
And now for some education with Fatherlorris
Last but not least we’re excited to share another comic strip by Fatherlorris of The Chapel with you. Learn about Dr John Rae’s Arctic expedition and his discovery of the lost Franklin expedition:
All of the Anno games are inspired by history and our team spent a significant amount of time researching the era of Anno 1800. History buffs across all departments of the team spent countless hours going through hundreds of photographs and pictures as a reference for the design of ships and houses, researching on the societal changes and struggles of the time and discussing how to implement those as a gameplay feature. So while we are not and don’t want to be historically accurate, plenty of references can be found in the game.
The 1800s have also been an era of technology and innovations. Take “The Great Exhibition” that took place in London in 1851 as an example, which inspired the World’s Fairs in the game. Ground breaking innovations of the time found their way into Anno 1800, like railroads, electricity or steam ships, while Old Nate and his inventions are of course a small venture into early science fiction.
When we’re talking about expeditions, many of you were also curious about the inspirations for The Passage and we already had a Union Talk with our Game Writer África about the background of the DLC. So to give you a few more insights into the (ant)arctic expeditions of the time, for example the Franklin Expedition, we enlisted popular artist Fatherlorris of The Chapel and asked him to create some comics for us.
Who is this Fatherlorris and The Chapel, you ask? Well, we let him introduce himself:
Hi, my name is Ryan AKA Fatherlorris. And the Chapel is a little webcomic about strategy games.
How did you get into making comics – and even more so comics about strategy games?
I first started making comics as a hobby in high school, I am very dyslexic and wasn’t particularly literate so comics were a great way to make my friends laugh without needing to use too many words. But more importantly a great way of giving friends birthday and Christmas presents without spending any money. Then a few years ago I decided to sign up to reddit and post a comic there, it was a surprise success and I have been making comics ever since
Most of the games you’re creating comics about have a historical setting. A hobby of yours?
Yes, absolutely. Always been a huge fan of history. I am from South Wales, not too far from the Blaenavon Ironworks, one of the birthplaces of the industrial revolution. The landscape all around is shaped by the coal and steel industry and I think it’s almost impossible not to take an interest in it.
Obvious follow-up question: How did you get involved with Anno then?
I was actually a bit of a latecomer to anno, I only started playing with the release of ANNO: 1404 Venice. At the time it was one of the only multiplayer city builders on the market, and that really appealed to me.
With these latest comics focusing on the (Ant-)Artic: Do you have personal connections to those regions or their history?
I don’t have any personal connection beyond my great granddad sinking the coal mine that dug the coal that fuelled the ships that sailed to the arctic. I actually got interested in the Arctic by accident, I picked up a copy of The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard and it was one of the most gripping books I have ever read. Ever since I have been reading every diary about arctic expeditions I could get my hands on. If you are looking for crazy Tolkienesque tales about real people then I would definitely recommend a book written by or about an arctic explorer.
Thank you very much, Ryan!
So, without further ado: here is the first The Chapel comic about the events of the Franklin expedition. There will be 4 more about similar icy adventures which will be shared in future Union Updates – so keep an eye out 😉
Time sure flies! Has it already been a year since you all first joined us in the age of the industrial revolution? Turns out the answer is yes, and what an incredible year it has been for all of us. So, let us look back at the first year of Anno 1800 together!
April 16, 2019: Anno 1800, the seventh game in the equally beloved and long-running Anno series is released, inviting PC gamers worldwide into the age of the industrial revolution
April 29, 2019: Thanks to all of you, we can announce that Anno 1800 is officially the fastest selling game in the franchise’s 20-year history! Thanks everyone ?
June 5, 2019: “The Anarchist” Dr. Hugo Mercier joins the party as the first new content release for the game, including a new NPC opponent (or ally), new quests and items. Alongside Hugo come new menus for construction projects like the world fair, dig site and court of justice.
July 30, 2019: Annoholics start the hunt for “Sunken Treasures” with our first DLC from the Season 1 Pass, which includs major new features like the diving bell system and item crafting with Old Nate, and of course the ever popular Crown Falls island, which has become the centerpiece of many a building record attempt. On the free side of things, Game Update 4 brings with it a higher zoom level, overall performance improvements, reworked expedition rewards and improvements to the trade route menu.
August 19, 2019: Not only does Anno 1800 make an appearance at the first ever gamescom Opening Night Live event alongside some of the biggest games of the year, but it also gives players a first glimpse at “Botanica” and “The Passage”, plus the announcement of the all-new day and night mode that many of you had been hoping for!
September 5, 2019: Our second Season 1 DLC, Botanica, makes your cities bloom with the new botanical garden, while bringing a lot of free improvements as part of Game Update 5. Among those are the beloved day and night mode, new plaza tiles for your cultural buildings, new botanical expeditions, ships being able to escort between sessions and… ghost ships. So many ghost ships.
October 1, 2019: As a result of the ghost ship invasion of 2019, we announce a change to our development roadmap, combining the free Game Update for the co-op and statistics features with the release of “The Passage” for December. We also announce a larger scale test to give community members to chance to help us fine-tune this huge update prior to release.
December 10, 2019: Marking the biggest day since release for Anno 1800, December 10 has something for everyone! “The Passage” invites players for a dangerous journey into the arctic, the statistics system gives everyone the ability to fine-tune their economy even further, the co-op mode unites former enemies, and the “Holiday Pack” allows Annoholics to construct a beautiful Christmas Market in their cities.
December 12, 2019: What’s the best way to end the year on a high note? Awards! Anno 1800 is the big winner at the 2019 edition of the German Developer Award, winning across all nominated categories, including the main award for the “Best German Game”. Dankeschön!
February 28, 2020: All good things must come to an end, and so we say goodbye to two long-time veterans of the Anno franchise, with Anno 1800’s Executive Producer Burkhard Ratheiser and Senior Creative Director Dirk Riegert moving on to other projects here at Ubisoft Mainz. In their stead, we welcome our new Game Director Manuel Reinher and Senior Producer Charles Harribey.
March 9, 2020: After an extended content break, Anno 1800 is back and firing on all cylinders with the announcement of the Season 2 Pass. For the first time ever in the history of the series, an Anno game will get a second year of support, including several free Game Updates and three all new DLCs! In addition, we have to say “thank you” to everyone in the community once more, as we announce that the game had attracted more than a million players by December 2019!
March 24, 2020: Only two weeks after the announcement, the new “Seat of Power” DLC kicks of Season 2 of Anno 1800 in style, inviting you to construct a magnificent palace. Alongside the new DLC comes Game Update 7, including several improvements like a difficulty setting for the influence system, improved multi-copy and reworked item pools for the diving bell system.
As you can see, we have been busy, and continue to be so with all the future goodness coming to the game. This Summer, we will invite you to give your farms a big boost with “Bright Harvest”, before travelling to the “Land of Lions” in Fall. And we are of course also working on new Free Updates, including an overview of all your items, and the much-rumored return of the “Great Eastern”.
Before we leave you for today, we again want to stress how all the above has only been possible thanks to your passion and support of Anno over the years. As a small token of our gratitude, we are releasing the “Imperial Pack” (Anno 1800’s Pre-Order Bonus) and all Twitch Drop Ornaments from 2019 to all our players for free… today! So the next time you start the game, you will have access to 10 additional ornaments, as well as the Imperial skins for the command ship and train engine.
Thanks for playing, stay tuned to the Anno Union for future news, and (most importantly) stay safe and healthy!
To prepare you for all architectural challenges of our upcoming Season 2 Pass DLC “Seat of Power” as well as Game Update 7, we will run another Twitch Drop Event beginning this Friday.
The whole event takes place from Friday March 20th and – to give you some time to pick your favourite streamer – will last until March 29th.
During the Event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch Streamers construct their first palace to not only beautify their cities but also boost culture, production and more.
Anyone watching them struggle during their attempts can grab two brand new ornaments, the Seat of Power Flag and the Seat of Power Billboard. The only thing you need to do is link your Uplay to your Twitch account and watch the streamers during the event for up to 3 hours to receive your loot. You don’t have to watch these hours consecutively to receive your drop; watching them accumulated on participating streamers will also grant you the ornaments.
If you haven’t already done so in the past, to link your Ubisoft- and Twitch-account, just follow the steps outlined on this website.
You can find the full list of all participating Streamer here:
What an exciting week! In our big announcement livestream on Monday we unveiled the future of Anno 1800 and our plans for 2020. If you missed the stream or want to watch it again, we got you covered:
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As a big thank you for your support and by now over a million players, we also prepared a special ornament for you which you can now find in the game.
Fittingly, this week’s Anno Afternoon is all about YOUR cities! Ubi-Thorlof and Ubi-Hanabi will take a look at several Anno 1800 cities created by community members. Time to take a stroll along beautiful boulevards, check out fleet sizes, city layouts and production centres – and maybe cause a bit of mayhem along the way.
Tune in on Friday, March 13th, at 4PM UTC over on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte A big thank you again to everyone who sent in their savegame!
happy Monday. And what a great Monday it is! Not only did we just reveal our plans for Season 2 of Anno 1800 (which begins in just two weeks with our next DLC, Seat of Power!), but we also want to share and celebrate a special milestone with all of you.
2019 was an incredible year for the Anno 1800 team. From seeing our game becoming a hit on Twitch during the Closed Beta in January and the game’s launch in April, to three DLCs and lots of improvements throughout the following months, it was quite the adventure. We even won a lot of awards (and were nominated for even more)! The last highlight of the year came in December, when – thanks to all of you! – Anno 1800 reached the milestone of more than 1 million players after less than nine months on the market, confirming its status as the fastest-selling game in our beloved 21-year-old series!
1 million is obviously a huge number, but how does that translate into the world of Anno’s gameplay? To give you a better idea of all the shared achievements of the Anno community, we have put together this handy infographic, showing some of the mind-boggling numbers that can be reached when over 1 million Annoholics get down to business.
Of course, we could not have reached this milestone without the passion and support of the Anno Union community, who have been with us every step of the way for the past two and a half years. As a special “thank you” for the love and support of the Anno community, we are releasing this free ornament with Game Update 6.3, which is out today.
Test Anno 1800 for free from March 12-15
Of course, it would not be a proper celebration if we did not invite everybody! So, if you have to yet take the plunge into the industrial revolution, you can test Anno 1800 for free from March 12-15*. The Anno 1800 Free Weekend will give you access to the first three tiers of Sandbox Mode, as well as multiplayer and co-op mode. The pre-load is now available via Epic Games Store and on Uplay, and you can see the exact times of the Free Weekend on Uplay below.
Here is to an exciting Season 2!
The Anno 1800 Team
*Play a free demo of Anno 1800 from 12th March, 2020 3pm UTC to 16th March, 2020 2pm UTC on EPIC PC and from 12th March, 2020 11am UTC to 16th March, 2020 2pm UTC on Uplay. The game is provided AS-IS, may not function as expected, and may crash. Please note that maintenance may also occur at any time during this period, rendering you unable to access parts or all of the game. Internet access and Ubisoft Account registration required.
Prior to the release of The Passage last December, we excitedly announced our plan to deliver even more Anno 1800 to our 1 million+ pioneers of industrial revolution throughout 2020. This presents a unique opportunity for the Anno team, as it means that Anno 1800 will be receiving more postlaunch support than any previous game in the series! In the past, development of content has ended a year or so after the release of an Anno game, with the team moving on to the next title. With Anno 1800, we are excited to have the chance to flesh out the world of the industrial revolution even further, with new systems, citizen tiers and yes, even a new continent. Enter stage right: The Anno 1800 Season 2 Pass, which will be adding three exciting new DLCs to the game this year!
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It all begins later this month with our next DLC pack, Seat of Power, which allows you to construct a magnificent palace fit for the ruler of an industrial empire. And while we know that our modular buildings like the zoo or botanical garden are big hits with beauty builders, the palace has an altogether more profound impact on life in your capital. As the eponymous Seat of Power, the palace will house several departments, each giving you not only a passive bonus, but also the pick of several policies that you can use to influence different aspects of life in your city.
A majestically illuminated palace at night
Game Update 7 (March 24, free for all players)
Speaking of influence, we would be remiss if we did not mention our free Game Updates. As with Season 1, each of our three Season 2 DLCs will release alongside a free Game Update that will further improve and enhance the game for all Anno 1800 players. With Game Update 7, we will tackle one of the most discussed game systems by adding three separate difficulty tiers for the influence system. With this change, you can select whether you want to earn more, less or the same amount of influence as you currently do. And yes, this will also apply to existing save games, asking you to pick a difficulty the first time you load up your save game!
Bright Harvest (Summer 2020)
With our second DLC, we are taking the technological marvels of the second industrial revolution to the countryside, allowing you to boost your farms’ productivity to unknown heights! To do so, you will place new tractor modules on your farms, which will increase the overall productivity of the farm, while also lowering the required workforce. Depending on how many farms you have, this could mean a whole lot more space on your islands, and we can’t wait to see what you do with it! Of course, you will have to make sure that your tractors don’t run out of fuel along the way…
Early technical test of a tractor
To round out the theme of industrialization, Bright Harvest will also include a new selection of farming-and-industry-themed ornaments, to make your cities feel even livelier.
Land of Lions (2020)
We bet you didn’t see this one coming, eh? Jokes aside, we know that the community has been clamoring for an African-inspired session in Anno 1800 ever since we first announced that the game would be using the Session system, way back in 2017. Good things come to those who wait, and we are happy to say that Land of Lions will be the biggest DLC for Anno 1800, including a new session and continent, new citizen tiers, buildings, production chains and quests. In a new storyline, you will travel to the drylands to join up with Emperor Ketema, as he works to turn his lands green.
Discover the Land of Lions later this year
You will do so using the new irrigation system, making smart use of what little existing water there is on the map to construct a network of canals and fertile patches of soil. Anno veterans will notice similarities to Anno 1404’s Noria, though Land of Lions puts an all-new spin on the timeless fantasy of making the desert bloom. We also listened to your feedback regarding the Passage, and rest assured that Land of Lions will have a deeper impact on things in the old world! We will have much more information about all the new content later this year.
The Season 2 Pass is now available!
In addition to these three DLCs, buyers of the Season 2 Pass will also receive three exclusive new ornaments when Seat of Power launches on March 24th— so enjoy your first look at the appropriately-themed ‘Palatial Column’, ‘Ploughman’s Glory’ and ‘Elephountain’.
The Palatial Column and majestic Elephountain
The Season 2 Pass for Anno 1800 (including Seat of Power, Bright Harvest, Land of Lions and the three ornaments) is now available for purchase from Epic Games Store, Steam (Update: The Season 2 Pass sadly won’t become available on Steam until Seat of POwer and Uplay, for a price of 24,99 $/ €, which will represent a saving of 9,99 $/ € versus individual purchase of the three DLCs. We can’t wait to show you more about all three DLCs, and our free Game Updates over the coming months!
The Ploughman’s Glory is a monument to your farming prowess
As we are getting ready to reveal our 2020 plans for Anno 1800 next month, we want to inform you about some changes in the Anno development team. At the end of last year, we said goodbye to two long-time veterans of the franchise, Burkhard Ratheiser and Dirk Riegert. While we are sad to see them leave Anno, we can appreciate that working on the same gaming series for over 15 years is a long time and that the huge success of Anno 1800 makes this the perfect time to hand the scepter over to our new leadership. Rest assured that both are staying with Ubisoft Mainz, exploring new ideas for future projects!
Burkhard is not only one of the co-founders of our studio here in Mainz but has been instrumental in Anno’s transition to full 3D as the Lead Programmer of our game engine during the development of 1701. Following that, he worked on Anno 1404 and 2070 as the Head of Graphics and R&D, before moving into game production with Anno 2205. Over the last years, he led Anno 1800’s development as Executive Producer. Of course, many of you know also know him from the eponymous “Burkhard’s Trail” easter egg from Sunken Treasures.
Burkhard on staging presenting Anno 1800
“I’m very thankful that I had the chance to contribute in several different roles to this great franchise. For the last 15 years Anno has always played a big part in my life and with Anno 1800 being the fastest selling Anno ever and for many also the best installment so far, the time has come for me to move to new ventures, handing over the baton to a new team. I would like to thank the Anno community for their great support and feedback over all these years, knowing that the fruitful collaboration will ensure that Anno has a bright future, continuing in providing countless hours of joy and excitement to our fans.” – Burkhard
Dirk probably needs no introduction to Anno devotees, given the number of interviews and live streams he has participated in over the years, earning him the loving nickname of Karrenschieber (“cart pusher”). He is one of the driving forces behind the Anno games developed in Mainz, starting as Lead Game Designer on Anno 1701 and 1404, before taking over as the franchise’s Creative Director with the Venice add-on. He then took the franchise into the future and even space with Anno 2070 and 2205, before leading the Anno team and franchise into the age of the industrial revolution with Anno 1800 as Senior Creative Director.
„When I started as Lead Designer on ANNO 1701, I wouldn’t have dared to dream that I would help shape five Anno games over the coming 15 years! It is said that one should quit while they are ahead, and after the great success of ANNO 1800 last year this moment has finally come for me. I am already working on new, exciting projects within Ubisoft. The baton with the golden nine engraved in its knob has been passed on to Manuel. I for sure know that he will take perfect care of it.” – Dirk
Dirk across the ages
Which brings us to our new Game Director, so please welcome Manuel Reinher!
Manuel is a true strategy gaming veteran, having first started his career as an artist at Phenomic on Spellforce in 2004, before filling a variety of art related roles on games such as Spellforce 2 and Battleforge (by then as EA Phenomic, as the studio had been acquired by Electronic Arts in 2006). He has now been with Ubisoft Mainz for over 6 years, starting as Lead Artist for the futuristic cityscapes of Anno 2205, before leading the art team responsible for the detail-obsessed 19th century world of Anno 1800. As Game Director, he will oversee the overall future of the Anno franchise, both for future Anno 1800 content and beyond.
“Hi Anno Union, I’m Manuel, and extremely honored to follow in the footsteps of Burkhard and Dirk. Working on Anno for the last years has been a fantastic journey: After our adventures in space we brought the game back to a historical setting and we are extremely proud to kick off 2020 with new ideas and full of energy.
But, before we head into a bright ANNO future, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you: The success of Anno is just possible because of our hard-working team and the fantastic support we have from our community. So, I grab the baton: we have more opportunities than ever and I’m very excited to take the next steps together with all of you.” – Manuel
Manuel hard at work
And that’s it for today! Please give a round of applause to Burkhard and Dirk for their many contributions to Anno, and a warm welcome to Manuel! And as always, keep an eye on the Anno Union, as we get ready to unveil our plans for Anno 1800 in 2020!
