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After going to space and underwater, Ubisoft's Anno series is going back to the past

After going to space and underwater, Ubisoft's Anno series is going back to the past

Next year, the Anno series will be two decades old. 

In its early days, the RTS city builder franchise was set during historical periods, such as the 1400s, 1500s and 1700s.  But with 2011's Anno 2070, the franchise set course for the future, with 2015's Anno 2205 pushing things even further.

But now the series is returning to its historical root with Anno 1800.

"We felt that after two games with a sci-fi setting that with doing a third one in that space there were still options for things to do but we felt that becoming a sci-fi brand would limit us a little bit," creative director at developer Blue Byte Dirk Riegert explains.

"We felt it would be good to do a historical setting again. We asked our team and there was one setting everyone wanted to do but for some reason, we ended up doing something else. We felt it was good to come back to that. Then we talked to the community because we already had the idea we wanted to work with the community so we also talked with them in detail and they were really into the setting themselves. We have done surveys before and this was always one of the top three or four settings what was mentioned all the time. We felt we should do it - the time is right.

"Also coming back from sci-fi, this timeframe still has some technological aspects to it. But also, the human touch from the first Anno games can also be found there. It's a good compromise. The number is 1800, but that's where it starts; it's not so much about the Napoleonic Wars or the sailing ships; it's more the peak of the sailing ship times and moving onto steamships and really playing the whole era of industrialisation."

Prior to 2070's release, a sci-fi setting was, in fact, one of the least-liked settings by the fanbase; that title went on to be the most popular entry in the franchise.

"It was really interesting; when we had all those historical implementations of the game, the sci-fi setting was the least liked one. Every time we asked people what we should do next, sci-fi was the last spot," Riegert says.

"I felt it was for the wrong reasons; people were afraid of space for this kind of thing. But I felt that if it was a possible future, they might like it. We did some quality research and found out that when they got into it, they really liked it very much. That's when we did 2070. It was the most successful Anno so far. It was a great thing and really cool. Ubisoft was encouraging us to do this - telling us to take risks and do something cool. 

"Then 2205 came out; we went underwater, into the future but let's explore more and go to the moon and that kind of thing. It also did well. The problem was it divided the community somewhat. There were some elements of the community that really loved it and thought the game was really cool; other parts felt like it wasn't a real Anno game anymore. When you have a community that's built up, that's gone such a long way.. next year it's the 20th anniversary of the series, so what you really don't want to do is divide that group and let them fight among themselves. We really were eager to bring that back together and reunite them. As a community, as well as us as developers, altogether delivering this very nice Anno game."

The title's 1800 setting is partially an attempt to help unite a divided fanbase; to have a historical setting but one where there is a great deal of technological innovation.

"In part, but on the other side, you have to see that we are totally interested in the community feedback, that since the first Anno that this was something we were doing so we were always doing surveys, questionnaires, quality studies, focus groups, talking to the people," Riegert says.

"We were doing that all the time. We felt that even though we did that for several reasons, we did not deliver with the last game and we felt that we wanted to five a full experience again. We had the idea with the Anno Union to come out with the info that we were working on the game pretty soon, so not the normal half year before release, so we could get in touch with them and they would have different opportunities; they would be able to share their feedback of course, but we'd also specifically ask them for feedback, there will be some votes on things like choosing their AI profile for the game. I'm really excited by what might come out of that and we'll execute it. We still have a strong vision for the game but there are multiple ways that fans of the game can influence it. They can register for free alpha tests and beta tests. This is a close connection we'll have."

We're still a long way from launch, with Anno 1800 pencilled in for a late 2018 release date. But Riegert has high hopes for the title, and even wants this to be the series favourite.

"As a team, we really want to deliver the Anno experience that the fans are longing for," he explains.

"At the start, it's more about the communication and concerns, so they want to see a classic Anno game. When we release more than that; we want to see this game as the state of the art building strategy game for PC, for the fans, but also in general for PC strategy gamers. We also have a lot of new stuff that we'll place on top. That's not easy for a game that already has six instalments; there's a lot of stones in your bag that you carry around and you carefully sort them out. We've been thinking about this for a long time. This time, we really have some cool stuff that I'm not able to talk about now but that I know will come up. When we come out, our ambition is to deliver the best Anno experience for the 20th anniversary. It's my fifth Anno; it's already a lot. There's also a personal ambition to show we are still able to deliver something that can beat Anno 1404, which is the fan favourite. The others have highlights, so we're trying to take something from every game. We analyse them pretty close. If you take them together, 1404 is the community's hero. We will try to have a new Anno up on the pedastl after the launch of Anno 1800."

PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.