“If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.”
― Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“They make a desert and call it peace.”
 —Tacitus, Roman Historian, quoting the Scottish chieftain Calgacus.

As announced with the reveal of Anno 117: Pax Romana just a few weeks ago, we’ll be taking you on a journey through the development of our game over the months until release.

Today, we’ve asked our Senior Game Writer, Matt Cook, to lead us through the world of Anno 117 and how we create Anno worlds inspired by ancient history.

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Salvete Anno Community,

We’re excited to announce Anno’s first Community Event!

 

On Wednesday, August 21^st, we’ll be holding the very first Anno Builder Event in Cologne, Germany – and we’re inviting you to join us at the Roonburg (Roonstraße 33, 50674 Cologne) for an Anno-themed evening. The event will start at 6pm and last until 11pm.

There will be food and drinks as well as dev panels with:

• Andrea Fricke (Lead Game Designer)
• Lisa Wittmann (International Product Manager)
• Matt Cook (Senior Game Writer)
• Manuel Reinher (Creative Director)
• Oliver Walz (Community Developer)

Special guest: Owen Phillips, the artist blacksmith, will share his experience on what it was like crafting ...

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What’s this, a new Anno logo? Have they now really abandoned the good old wooden plank from the days of Anno 1404?

Well, we used the last year(s) to not only refine our vision for Anno 117: Pax Romana and start the development of the game, but also to think about Anno as a brand overall and its visual identity. Today, let’s talk about branding with Haye Anderson, our Brand Director.

Note: If you’ve watched our livestream on July 2nd (VOD can be found here) you will have already heard most of this. But we wanted to also have this information here on the Anno Union – and share the Behind the Scenes video with you!

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Hey Anno Community,

Welcome to a rather lengthy Union Update with news and information. We’ll be talking about next week’s livestream, what happened in the last two weeks and have a Q&A section at the end.

Short reminder here that we had our very first livestream, a dev talk about our vision for Anno 117: Pax Romana and the reveal itself, last week. If you missed it, you can watch the VOD here.

Let’s dive right in:

Livestream on Branding

On July 2^nd, we’re tackling questions that are likely also close to the heart of many Anno veterans: What even is Anno? What makes Anno games special and what are the key aspects and emotions an Anno game has to transport?

Those questions we have to ask ourselves...

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Salve Anno Community,

It’s not been long since the reveal of Anno 117: Pax Romana, but we already have something for you all to have fun with: a Community Contest! This will be the first contest of a series dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana, where we’ll ask you to use your creativity and imagination to create something that will make its way into the game.

Your first quest

Without further ado, let’s dive into your first assignment! As you might know, sculpture was considered one of the highest forms of art by Romans. This is why for the first contest we challenge you to create your own statue based on this silhouette gently provided by our lovely Art Team in Ubisoft Mainz.

...

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Hey Anno Community,

And welcome to the very first “Union Update” blog following the reveal of Anno 117: Pax Romana!

It’s been an exciting few days so far, following the announcement of the upcoming installment of the Anno series. In “Union Update” blogs like this one, we’ll recap recent events, share the latest news with you and give you a preview of things to come.

 

In that spirit, we can’t share it often enough: We announced a new Anno game on Monday – Anno 117: Pax Romana! Below you can find the trailer AND the speech by our Creative Director Manuel as well as Brand Director Haye at Ubisoft Forward.

https://static-wordpress.akamaized.net/anno-union.co... Read more

Hello everyone – and welcome to the Anno Union!

 

We have just revealed our next project: Anno 117: Pax Romana!

Make sure to read our dedicated blog for Anno 117: Pax Romana and watch the reveal trailer to learn more about the game and get some glimpses at what this new entry to the Anno series will feature.

Until the release, we’re looking forward to telling you more about the game, our vision and how we actually go about creating a new Anno game.

All this – and more – will happen here: on the Anno Union! This is your central hub for anything rel...

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How often do you think about the Roman Empire? Because we… we’re doing it daily!

We’re proud and excited to announce a new chapter for the Anno franchise:

 

Anno 117: Pax Romana!

Take on the role of a Roman governor in the year 117 AD and journey through the uncharted territories of the Roman Empire. Uncover the allure of Latium and Albion, the twin provinces under your stewardship as governor. Seize the opportunity to expand your influence and harness the unique advantages and challenges each province presents.

“We will not only deliver the fantasy millions of strategy players are waiting for: to govern one of the most iconic ancient empires, we will push beyond that, and change how people see the Roman Empire in games. Explore different province...

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Hey Anno Community,

Last week we showcased Taludas’ “New Frontiers” mod for Anno 2205 which adds a whole bunch of new features and content for the game – including Mars as an entirely new region!

 

Today, we’re returning to Anno 1800 with a full spotlight on Hier0nimus who you might know from mods like the “Perfect Specialist & Items Pack” or ...

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Hey Anno Community,

Let’s have one more round of updates before the weekend!

Starting with a reminder about the livestream we did on Wednesday: Community Developer Oliver was joined by Brand Director Haye, Creative Director Manuel and Executive Producer Stephane for one hour of Anno Dev Talk:

We talked about the scope of their jobs and how they all entered the video games industry, as well as their motivation to get out of the bed every morning to work on video games.

Together with the chat, we discussed what makes an Anno game actually “Anno” – and all four revealed which games they are playing right now.

If you’ve missed the stream, you can watch the VOD here on Twitch.

... Read more

Hey Anno Community,

It’s May 14^th and we have to let off some steam – with the Steampunk Pack Cosmetic DLC releasing today!

Find out more about this latest bundle of ornaments and building skins in our DevBlog. Watch researchers test an experimental dragonfly-suit, give your Investor residences a steampunky new look or build dreamy plazas with the celestial ground tiles.

The Steampunk Pack is available on all platforms for the price of 4,99€ or your regional equivalent.

In addition to the new Cosmetic DLC, we also released a few bug fixes. You can find the Release Notes here on the Anno Union, both for PC as well as for Console.

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Hey Anno Community,

Prepare yourself a cup of steamy tea and get ready for a nice read because today, after much teasing, it is finally time to dive into our upcoming Cosmetic DLC: the Steampunk Pack! If you watched our End-of the-Year livestream back in December, you might have noticed a small teaser that redirected you to a mysterious page set up by none other than Old Nate, who was secretly “leaking” important information and clues on the content of the Steampunk Pack. Safe to say we got that situation under control now… right?

Unreal new skins

The focus of this Cosmetic DLC is innovation and progress, which perfectly marries with the ove...

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Grab a piece of the birthday cake, Anno 1800 is turning 5 today!

Half a decade of Anno 1800 (and even longer for anyone who’s been following the game since its reveal in 2017) is quite some time and a lot has happened since the release back in April 2019. Let’s go on a little nostalgia trip together:

https://static-wordpress.akamaized.net/anno-union.com/Videos/Anno1800_5Years_Thank_You.mp4

Five years really are a long time for any game, and we wouldn’t have been able to work on Anno 1800 for such a time without YOUR support. It was also your support that enabled us to reach

 

over 4 million players!

 

To celebrate both this milestone and the birthday, we’ll...

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Hey Anno Community,

We’re excited to announce our partnership with Art4Fans!

Together we’re bringing five selected Anno 1800 artworks as deluxe prints to the Art4Fans store.

Art4Fans, located in the heart of Montreal, offers high-quality artworks designed for art fans and also works with, for example, our colleagues at Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six Siege.

...

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Hey Anno Community,

Greetings from Mainz, we hope you’re all doing well!

We know things are a bit quieter on the communication side this year, but we want to at least give you a look at what’s happening in the coming weeks.

Cosmetic DLC 14 is planned to release in May, but we will drop the occasional teaser before that (like we’ve done last week) and there will be, as usual, a DevBlog closer to release with all details. Expect more news in April.

Also: there’s Anno 1800’s 5^th birthday coming up on April 16^th.

Livestream

And what better time than Anno 1800’s birthday to hold our next livestream:

On April 16^th at 5PM CEST we’ll welcome a special guest from our Art Team: Laura will join us to not only talk about the work of an artist in the Anno team but als...

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Hey Anno Community,

We do have one more piece of news this month for fans of video game soundtracks:

On Sunday, January 28^th, the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra will perform pieces from several video game soundtracks including TES V: Skyrim, Civilization 6 and: Anno 1404!

If you’re living nearby, you can still buy tickets via their website, alternatively you can also just simply get comfortable at home and watch their Twitch live stream of the whole concert.

It’s starting at 6 PM CET (5 PM UTC) on https://www.tw...

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Hey Anno Community,

A happy New Year from the Anno team – we hope you all had a great start into 2024!

 

We’re back at work after our holiday break, time to let you know what’s coming up in the next months.
First of all: expect a slower start in terms of news and blogs from us this year.

In early Spring we’ll have more information on the next Cosmetic DLC (including a livestream with our artist Laura), the theme of which may or may not have been “leaked” at the end of last year.

The boardgame enthusiasts among you can also look forward to an expansion to the Anno 1800 boardgame, also coming in Spring 2024. We’ll keep you updated on any news our friends at Kosmos have on this.

On the Twitch side of things, we would also love to continue some of the (multiplayer) savegames – for example for 2070 and 1800 – from last year. Let us know what you’d like to see from us on Twitch!

Finally, we still want to continue f...

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Hey Anno Community,

The day is finally here: The Anno History Collection is setting sail, inviting bright-eyed newcomers and nostalgic veterans alike to (re)discover the first four classic games in the Anno series with new features like support for glorious 4K.

We previously detailed each of the four History Edition releases including their improvements and the respective game’s place in Anno history, which you can find here:

...

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Hey Anno Community,

good things come to those who wait, and you have certainly been patient whenever we discussed our plans for updates to the Union. That is why we are delighted to say that we are currently in the preparations of giving our venerable Anno Union website a small facelift, and what better opportunity to do so than alongside the release of the Anno History Collection this week!

As we work on some final steps, it is possible that you may run into some intermittent issues reaching the Union, for which we apologize. It is also possible that any comments you leave now may not make the jump over the new version. Rest assured that all previous blogs and your comments since launch will of course also be available on the new Union.

See you soon!

Hey Anno Community,

Welcome to the fourth and final part of our series of DevBlogs covering the four classic Anno games included in the upcoming Anno History Collection. This time, we will cover perennial fan-favorite Anno 1404. If you did not get a chance to check out our previous three blogs yet, we would encourage you to do so before reading on (especially the first one):

...

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