This year has been an incredible ride and 2019 will always be remembered as a big moment in Anno history, where Anno 1800 finally set sail to conquer the world. But it is not the end of a journey, merely a beginning. With the support of the Anno Union, the game became an overwhelming success and with the wind in our back and the wide horizon before us, we are looking into a bright future for the series.
Only 8 months after our maidens’ voyage, many thousands of players pushing their empires into the industrial revolutions every day and the numbers are still growing. With a strong season of content, from Sunken Treasures, Botanica and our latest DLC The Passage, up to many free game additions and updates such as Co-op, day night and statistics, our journey is far from over.
New adventures will await you 2020, with new content to expand the scope and enhance the experience of Anno 1800 even further. But before that, it is time to catch breath and to enjoy the holiday season with our family, friends and most likely playing a lot of games during our Anno Union winter break.
We will return in January with insights and updates about our future vision for the game. Until then, the whole Ubisoft Mainz team says thanks to all of you for your incredible support in 2019 and a happy holiday season to you and your beloved ones.
It was an eventful year and we reach the final week of the Anno Union coverage until head into our traditional winter break in order to recharge our batteries, most likely during Co-op matches with our friends and family. And to end this exciting and eventful year on a high note, as we have two more live-streams to come, an early Christmas gift for all of you and not to forget, we had our big win at this year’s German Entwicklerpreis game awards show!
Game Update 6.1 lands tomorrow, Tuesday December 17. at 2pm CET
The start of the week is marked by Game Update 6.1, which will land Tuesday December 13. at 2pm CET (tentatively). The update will address issues reported by our communities about instances of stability and performance issues as well as getting rid of the pesky fog haunting your islands. You can check out the full release notes here. Smooth sailing!
Anno 1800 wins in four categories at the German Game Awards
The Anno Union accompanied the development of the game since the early days and your influence on the quality of the game is something which we are very proud of. And so should you be, given the fact that Anno 1800 had been nominated for four awards at this year’s Germen Developer Awards: Best Graphics, Best Sound, Best Game Design and overall Best Game.
As you can imagine, we were incredibly excited to win not one, not two, not three, but four of these awards for our game! Thank you all for your support and encouragement during development of the game.
Lights and camera on – Two more live-streams to come this Wednesday and Friday!
What better way to end the year for us than to celebrate 2019 and the upcoming holiday season with all of you.
This Wednesday, we will host another episode of our AnnoCast livestream directly from the Anno 1800 studio in Mainz. As has become a tradition in the last years, we invite you to our get together where we reminisce about 2019’s big milestones, from launch to the many updates which followed, while playing Anno 1800, eating cookies and raffling out a few early Christmas gifts to our loyal viewers. AnnoCast: Holiday Special this Wednesday, December 18 at 4pm CET until 6pm CET
But our Anno 1800 community team does not plan to end the year quietly either, as they will once more journey into the frozen north on their search for the lost Christmas presents. To find out whether they will succeed (plus a chance to grab some Anno goodies yourself), tune in this Friday to support them morally on their adventure. AnnoAfternoon: The lost Presents, December 20 at 5pm CET until 7pm CET
And to watch, the only thing you have to do is to grab a tea or hot chocolate (we hear there may be some coffee shortages…) and to tune in to our official Ubisoft Blue Byte channel: Twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte
And to ensure that you don’t miss any future shows, feel free to follow our channel and the Anno 1800 category on twitch!
Anno 1800 Wallpaper Pack
Last but not least, we have a little gift for all of you to get you in the right mood for the holidays. In response to the high demand from our communities, we re-sized a bunch of the Anno 1800 season pass and holiday key-arts and wrapped them in a nice Wallpaper package. Don’t forget to let us know your favorite one and we are curious if you created your own Anno wallpapers in the past.
It’s a busy day, as we have a ton of new content and features for Anno 1800, so let’s dive right in to give you all the details you need! All of the below will go live today, December 10, at 6pm CET/ 5PM UTC/ 12pm EST/ 9AM PST.
The Passage DLC (part of the Anno 1800 Season Pass or 14.99€/$ stand-alone purchase)
Construct arctic outposts in an all-new arctic session and bring them to life with the new Explorer and Technician residential tiers.
Conquer the skies
Construct a fleet of airships to speed up the trade across all sessions of your empire.
New Arctic goods
Master new production chains and arctic trade goods such as Pemmican, parkas and husky sleds.
Crucial warmth
Use the new heating system to ensure your residents survive the brutal cold of the Passage.
More industrial adventure
Take your Anno 1800 experience to the next level with over 60 new quests and over 80 new items.
Holiday Pack DLC (3.99€/$ stand-alone purchase)
Short description:
Bring the spirit of the holidays to Anno 1800 with this new cosmetic DLC pack, which includes 23 new ornaments that allow you to decorate your cities in festive style.
A festive carousel, including fan favorite vehicles from the game.
Two Christmas trees, to fit the occasion.
Santa’s Grotto, giving your citizens a chance to share their wish lists with him.
Three different markets stalls for your very own Christmas market.
A jolly hoard of Christmas presents
Two festively ornamented street lanterns.
An appropriately wintery snowman ornament.
A decorated hedge system with six tiles.
A decorated fence system with six tiles.
Game Update 6 (4.8GB download)
This free Game Update includes several much requested features, including the co-op multiplayer mode, in-depth statistics and a multi-copy tool for buildings.
Play in the Anno 1800 Free Week from December 11 to 18 It has been 8 months and many Game Updates and improvements since Anno 1800 first set sail. To show any of you still on the fence how far the game has come since launch (and to give you the perfect excuse to invite some friends to try the new co-op mode together) we are running another Free Week for Anno 1800 later this month. From December 11 to 18, everyone can download and play the Free Week version of Anno 1800 from Uplay or the Epic Games Store. As with our first free week back in August, keep in mind that this is a stand-alone build of Anno 1800 that you must be separately downloaded. In addition, it is for technical reasons not possible to carry over any save games from the Free Week version to the regular game.
The free version of Anno 1800 will include the first three residential tiers in sandbox mode as well as all free Game Updates, which means multiplayer and co-op for everyone (alongside previously released content like the day & night mode). The content of the Anno 1800 Season Pass won’t be included in the Free Week version of Anno 1800.
And if you have some friends that you always wanted to play some co-op with who have yet to get the game, we have some good news for them: as part of the Free Week, all three editions of the game will be discounted by up to 55% on the Epic Games Store and Uplay!
As we get closer to next week’s update hattrick of The Passage (available as part of the Anno 1800 Season Pass or as a stand-alone purchase), co-op mode and new statistics system (available as a free update to all players), one question has become prevalent within our communities: “What`s next for Anno 1800?” Does The Passage mark not only the end of our Season Pass, but of development overall? Or can Annoholics look forward to more industrial adventures in 2020? Today, we want to answer that question by raising the curtain just a little bit…
Bring the Holiday Spirit to your cities on December 10
First, we have one more surprise in store for next week- the release of our “Holiday Pack”. This standalone DLC Pack (not included in the Season Pass or any editions of the game) adds a total of 23 new ornaments to the game, allowing players to build their very own Christmas Markets in their cities- including huts, Christmas trees and even a carousel featuring some vehicles from the game!
If all this sounds familiar to you as Anno fans, you are right; we did similar content packs for Anno 2070 as well, like the “Eden Series Package”. So why bring them back now? We know that Anno players love few things more than having new buildings to add to their cities, and there can never be enough variety when it comes to decorations and ornaments! At the same time, feature-rich DLCs like The Passage take several months of development, making it impossible for us to release them as frequently as we would like to deliver new content to you all to keep Anno 1800 exciting and fresh.
As a compromise between these aspects, our talented art team has created this pack of Holiday-themed ornaments to see if this is a content format that will appeal to the Anno community. Should the Holiday Pack prove popular with players, we would love to create more such themed packs in the future. Who knows, we could even run a vote on the Anno Union to decide on future themes to give you all something to look forward to as we work on new gameplay content!
And speaking of which…
There is more Anno 1800 on the way!
Enough teasing, here is what you all wanted to hear: The Passage is not the end for Anno 1800, and we are working on new gameplay content and features to further expand the world of the industrial revolution in 2020!
There is however a caveat: The team has been busy finishing The Passage and Game Update 6, and it will be some time before we will be able to share more concrete information with you all.
With that said, we hope you are as excited about this news as the team is, and we look forward to talking more about the future of Anno next year!
We are just one more week away from embarking on our big arctic adventure, making it the perfect time to give you some more updates on The Passage and Game Update 6, and what content you can expect for the rest of this week.
While last week’s Devblog and live streams already gave you a good overview of what to expect from the new update, we know that many of you are looking forward to seeing the full release notes for Game Update 6. You will soon be able to do so, as we will release them here on the Anno Union on Friday, December 6.
Originally, we had also planned to publish a dedicated statistics and co-op DevBlog, but after showing of many of the features in the last AnnoCast, we realized that, given the nature of the statistics feature, showing it in action is worth more than a thousand words of DevBlogs.
So, if you want to pass the time until you ca get your own hands on all the new statistics, you can relive last week’s AnnoCast live stream, where a group of developers spent almost two hours showing off a lot of the new content and features, right here.
The Passage Twitch Drops beginning this Friday
Once again, we will send a group of brave explorers on their way into the frozen north to broadcast their adventures on Twitch. During this Event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch Streamers try to open the Northwest Passage. Doing so can reward you with two brand new ornaments: the Anno Union flag and the Passage 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. But wait, there is one change to the last events: you won’t have to watch consecutive hours anymore to receive your drop; watching the hours accumulated on participating streamers will grant you the ornaments.
Last but not least, our friends from the Annoverse Fan Discord made the recordings of our AMA session from November 25. available for everyone. If you missed the event or want to listen to the lengthy AMAs again, you can do so now here: To the English Roundtable Recording To the German Roundtable Recording
And if you like the idea to get in touch with like-minded Annoholics, even though it could mean that you loose one or more evenings in lengthy chat discussions about your favorite title of the series, consider joining the Annoverse community.
End of October, we invited the Anno Union to go with us on an expedition to test the waters of the upcoming DLC The Passage as well as Game Update 6. Over the last couple of weeks, hundreds of Union members tested the upcoming content inside out and provided a huge amount of valuable feedback and reports. After weeks of analyzing your feedback and working on improvements and polishing, it’s now time to break the silence and open the doors of our testing vault, sharing the next steps for the Union and the upcoming content for Anno 1800.
AnnoAfternoon: The Sunken Dragon – Friday 22.11 at 5PM CET After barely escaping a burning city with their settlers, Community Manager Oli and Anno veteran Wolfgang are looking for a new home in Anno 1701. And wasn’t there also something about a mysterious artefact…?
AnnoCast: The Passage – Wednesday 27.11 at 5pm – 7pm CET Don’t forget to pack your parka as it is about to get cold. We thought “Show don’t tell” is the best approach and therefore, we will bring you the next AnnoCast already next week! Join us on an adventure to our arctic outpost to see the Passage and Game Update 6 (this includes a lot of sweet statistics) in action while we answer your most burning questions. You really don’t want to miss this one, as we plan to have a bunch of developers on camera in this almost two-hour long episode.
AnnoAfternoon: “In den kalten Norden” – German Episode – Friday 29.11 at 5pm CET And right after our developer stream, our community team will follow up with a new stream, this time with a special German episode in the frozen wasteland. So not only a good chance to take a look at the Passage after our developer stream, the team is eager to answer your questions or pass your feedback on to the developers.
And as we love that outside window from our studio into the outside window, we are always eager for feedback about our content. Give the channel a follow if you don’t want to miss any future episodes.
Union Talk Episode 4 With the Anno Union, we invited you all to help us developing the next big Anno game. And in that spirit, we love to share as many development insights as possible. In the now fourth episode of our developer podcast, we talk about the postlaunch journey of Anno 1800, conceptions and misconceptions about developing content after the big release and how we continue to work with your input and feedback.
And as this is a passion project from the development team for the Union, let us know if you would love to see more Union Talks in future and feel free to share your opinion on the topic matter of the latest podcast.
We will also drop new DevBlog’s in the upcoming weeks, where we talk about the development and show gameplay elements of the Passage as well as Game Update 6. Keep a keen eye on the Union for upcoming blogs and of course, we will soon share when The Passage and GU6 lands on your PC.
Annoverse Discord Roundtable Monday 25.11 at 7pm CET And because feedback and communication matters, our Community Developer Basti and Community Manager Oli join another round of the Annoverse Discord Roundtable. The Roundtable is an AMA session in our Anno Fandiscord, where everyone can join asking us anything while the team answers your questions in Voice Chat, if it is development or community related.
The Annoverse Discord is an great meetup place for great Annoholics new and old and we want to say thank you for the continues community support and for the hosting of the Roundtables. In that vein, we strongly encourage you to jump in the Discord yourself, as you will find hundreds of like minded Annoholics there to chat about anything Anno (and more)!
And that was it for this weeks Update but as you can see, it was mere the beginning. You can look forward to a lot of new and insightful content in the upcoming weeks to get you all prepared for journey into the frozen north – Winter is coming, after all!
Once again we want to share a community update with you, showcase some great Anno 1800 impressions from our community and let you know about our streaming plans. Let’s go!
Anno Afternoon Stream – Retro Edition
This Friday, we’re changing things up with the Anno Afternoon. After noticing that Ubi-Thorlof has never played Ubi-Trenchcoat’s favourite game of the series – Anno 1701 – they spontaneously decided to do a retro stream! Tune in on the 8th at 4PM UTC (5PM CET) when they’ll be diving into the The Sunken Dragon campaign.
Playtest und Game Update 6.0
The Game Update 6.0 playtest has started last week and is going very well. A big thank you to everyone who already provided their feedback in the dedicated forums. If you haven’t already – let us know your thoughts!
And if you have signed up for the playtest but haven’t received an invite yet: Do not worry. We will send another wave of invites in the coming week.
Parallel to the test our team continues their work on the Update including the third DLC, coming out in December. We will share more information regarding all the features and a precise date closer to release.
Community Spotlight
Let’s again round things up by featuring some the cities you built and the experiences you shared.
ClassicReddltor is extremely happy about finally getting the Extravaganza Steamer, posing in front of his massive city. How many of you already managed to get hold of this proud ship?
For friends of grapes and champagne, a visit to Conschbourg – the Green City – might be a good idea. Spacer176 also provides you with a tourist guide and a history lesson of this town.
If you’re more of a fan cities, you should probably plan a trip to DerGrindelwutz’s and RegalSeagull’s versions of Crown Falls. With plenty of parks, promenades along the river islands and bridges in front of the waterfall panorama, these cities simply invite you to take a long walk.
As a stark contrast to these peaceful views, cjnewson88 seems to have a few issues with his rioting populace.
But he later explains his city setup and the strategy behind his success – well worth a read.
That’s already it for this week’s Union Update!
Feel free to share your adventures and achievements with us on social or reddit and don’t forget to tune in to tomorrow’s stream.
We’re back once more with a community update and some info on what to expect from us in the near future.
Anno Afternoon Stream
This Friday, Seraxia and Thorlof will put their creative hats on (most likely not literally) in another Anno Afternoon and try something completely different. You want to know more? Then don’t miss out this special livestream episode and tune on the 25th at 4PM UTC+1 (5PM CEST).
And if you got any cool or funny ideas for future streams, what better opportunity to share them with us than this Friday?
Playtest beginning next week!
As you all know the next playtest is just around the corner and as we work together with the community to get a jam-packed Game Update 6 ready for December, we will take a short break from Union blogs in the upcoming week. But worry not, we will be back soon with community news and new game information.
And we already got some exciting news this week! Keep an eye on your inbox, cause for a first wave of players the the playtest will already start next week – more invite-waves will follow.
We’re very much looking forward to your feedback. So, when we’re already talking about GU6 and The Passage, why not hop over to Reddit. Some of you already started a discussion about the content of the DLC there. We might have some theories ourselves but it’s far more exciting to read your predictions. Which features and production chains do YOU think will be added with The Passage?
Community Content
Something that impressed all of us quite a bit was jasperwillem not only managing to get this settlement to house Engineers without ever visiting the New World but shortly after also luring Investors into ‘Golden City’.
How many of us spent long nights outsourcing production chains and setting up new trade routes. Or planting hedge rows for hours for that perfect inner-city park or the world’s best botanical garden. We bet there are some quirky challenges or legendary achievements you set yourself in the past or future. So, share them with us in the comments below!
Fitting to last week’s blog about the Day & Night Cycle, we also want to use this blog to share some impressions from the community. Apparently some of you have a weird fascination with exploding factories…but admittedly, fires look very cool at night:
That’s it for this Community Update. Did you already share your favourite moments with us? Be it day or night, dusk or dawn, we always love to see what fantastic scenes you manage to capture.
Today we want to give you an update on what is next for Anno 1800. We have received a lot of community feedback on Game Update 5, including some issues. The Anno community is at the heart of everything we do, so we are of course committed to improving the quality of all upcoming updates. As such, we have made some changes to our roadmap, which you can find detailed below.
Game Update 5.3 (mid-October)
We are currently working on Game Update 5.3, which we are planning to release in mid-October after extensive additional testing. For this update, we will be focusing on fixing the following issues:
Trains getting stuck inside the oil harbor
Ships getting stuck at the session border
Anarchist Main Story Quests appearing too rarely for some unlucky players
NPC characters having large fleets of duplicate ships
Ships in the ship list flickering/ switching around
Issues with selecting ships when preparing for an expedition
Ships returning to the wrong island after an expedition
The Shift+V command not working on depots
Ships of quest givers not despawning after the quests are finished, which can crowd NPC harbors
The Sunken Treasures session of Cape Trelawney being available without first doing the respective expedition
Ships drifting/ leaving their positions by themselves
Ships duplicating on the world map by registering multiple times for session transfer
Influence point balance being affected by saving and loading a game
Issues with manually loading/ unloading oil tankers
Quest objects spawning in water
Game Update 6 (December)
Game Update 6, including the previously announced co-op mode and statistics system, will be released alongside our third DLC, The Passage, in December. Combining all these content drops into one update will allow us to focus all of our polishing efforts into one release, giving us extra time for additional extensive testing of all the new content and new features. We are also planning to involve some of our Anno Union members in these tests, similar to the co-op technical test we conducted last week (more on that later this month).
We appreciate that some of you are very keen to get your hands on the co-op mode as soon as possible, but we hope that you will agree that getting the most polished experience possible is worth a few more weeks of patience.
We are as committed and focused on improving Anno 1800 as ever, and are looking forward to sharing more news on everything included in Game Update 6 – including the new arctic session, resident tiers, production chains and airships from The Passage, as well as the free co-op mode and new statistics features – in the weeks to come. Thank you all for your patience and ongoing support.
