We have not yet sent out any invites for the beta (if you're referring to the recent sign-up). This will still take a while - we'll definitely post news as soon as we start sending out invites.
You can continue to sign up here if you haven't done so already: https://register.ubisoft.com/anno-117/

We did already do smaller playtests over the last 1,5 years or so, but those do not have a public sign-up. They are a mix of hand-picked people and people who generally have signed up with the User Research Labs (e.g. when we looked for people who had zero experience with Anno), the latter usually being in-person playtests (link to User Research Labs: https://playtest.ubisoft.com/ - this is not restricted to Anno specifically).

We're not getting rid of the grid, as previously mentioned. More later this month in dedicated DevBlogs :)

While this can make it easier, there still are serious efforts involved, especially since we're using a proprietary engine. Plus, every platform (that includes Xbox and PlayStation as well) has some specific requirements before you can release there.

So, sure, not impossible, but if you have to decide where to spend your team's time, you go for the platforms with higher player numbers.

Doesn't rule anything for the future, after all, we released Anno 1800 on consoles years after the PC release, but for now: no, no macOS plans.

Better create an ebay account.

Yes

I see this was already edited but no, this is not and has never been the release date.

Right now there are no plans in that direction. For release, Anno 117: Pax Romana will be available on Windows PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

From the pool of everyone who signed up, we will randomly pick people for each upcoming beta test.

Depends on the playtest, really. The registration here is for multiple different test phases.

For the large phases like Closed Beta: very much a random selection for each platform + some handpicked people.

For smaller playtests: mostly handpicked people or at least much more specialised criteria (platform? player type? played Anno before yes/no?).

You would need to change the email address of your Ubisoft account, that's where we send the invites to.
You should be able to change it via this website: https://account.ubisoft.com/

Looks like the wrong URL was added on Ubisoft Connect. Please use this link: https://register.ubisoft.com/anno-117/

This is just a registration for future beta tests ;)

I understand you (and many others) are impatient now, but the next test is still a little bit further into the future. We'll post news when invites are about to be sent out.

Gorgeous island! Crazy impressive what you all pulled off here.

We always uploaded a bundle with the artworks of the respective year in our last blog of the year (e.g. here: https://www.anno-union.com/union-update-happy-holidays-2024/) but you might be right that the overall bundle hasn't been updated with the last few CDLC.

We'll take a look at that and update the master bundle in the near future.

Those are custom stamps created by the YouTuber in question. You can create your own (on PC) to suit your needs.

You can find a "how to" in these places:

- Anno Union: https://www.anno-union.com/union-update-its-annoversary-update-release-day/

- Anno Stamps (where you can also find plenty of Stamps created by other users): ...

It's true that in our real world, both during ancient as well as medieval times, taxes were not necessarily paid in coins but occasionally in goods. However, in Anno 117: Pax Romana, money/coins will once again be used as a way to measure your income, pay for upkeep costs etc.

This clip was captured in-game and represents the current visuals of the game at the time it was captured.

I tend to not comment on any business topics here for obvious reasons, but making an exception today: As stated by several in the comments and the subreddit mods (thank you!), Anno 117: Pax Romana is developed by Ubisoft Mainz and its development is not impacted by this recent decision.

I can confirm that dynamite fishing won't make a return (it became a running gag in the dev team, though). However, people management is very unlikely to be part of Anno (in general). That said, the campaign should give you a closer attachment to the world than a regular sandbox game.

A few comments on the other points:

Our modders have the luxury of (worst case) accepting decreased performance (e.g. max-zoom), that's something we try to avoid.

In postlaunch we also added significantly more complex production chains to Anno 1800, but the base game didn't go quite as crazy. That level of challenge and complexity only speaks to a part of our audience.

Things like this is why we are happy to support and showcase our modding community: they can create content or do changes to the game catering to very specific player types (or simply cause they want to play that way).
We, on the other hand, still have to keep the playerbase as a whole in mind when d...