Through the decades, city-building strategy games have managed to carve a loyal niche within the gaming industry with titles likeCivilizationandAge of Empirescontinuing to grow in popularity even today. Among the list of fan-favorite strategy titles include Ubisoft’sAnnofranchise. Recently,Ubisoftannounced an update for one of its earlier titles,Anno 2070, that excited a lot of players.Previously, Ubisoft stated thatAnno 2070would shut down along with online services and content for several other titles. Although the initial announcement stated that the shutdown was to happen by 1 September,Ubisoft extended online services by a monthfor some of these games. Additionally, Ubisoft Mainz, the developers behindAnno 2070revealed that the game will be updated so that players can continue to play the game along with all of its features.RELATED:Ubisoft Officially Announces Assassin’s Creed MirageAs per the statement, theAnnodevelopersinitially tested its singleplayer components, special features such as world events and the Ark, multiplayer, and then eventually migration of player progression. Thereby, following an update toAnno 2070fans will be able to continue playing past 1 September and “hopefully many more years to come,” says the development team. The announcement further mentions that the game will be in maintenance mode on 6 September at 6 AM UTC+2, during which player progression will be moved to the new version.
Whereas other older Ubisoft titles likeAssassin’s Creedwill lose some of their content,Anno 2070will retain player progression and all ofAnno 2070’s features. Further, the developers also state that the update will offer performance improvements to the game.Anno 2070has been ported to 64bit to allow it to work better with the PC memory and its new online services “should make for a nicer matchmaking experience,” according to the team. However, Ubisoft Mainz has specified that it won’t be able to guarantee if old mods will continue to work with the new version ofAnno 2070.
Nevertheless, the move to update an 11-year-old game to retain its functionality is a welcome one for many fans of the series. It’s clear that Ubisoft is banking onAnnoto remain a favorite among players as the publisher reassured fans that the studio currently has an active team that will continue to work onAnno. It’s unclear if players can expect more updates to the franchise anytime soon. If anything, the publisher will likely share more details duringSeptember’s Ubisoft Forwardevent.
Ubisoft’sAnno 2070is currently available on PC.
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