Anno 1800 was announced last year as a return to the long-ago glories of the Victorian era (and the Anno series): Big ships, industrialization, and world-spanning trade empires, as Fraser put it. The announcement included a release target of "winter 2018," which is obviously out the window at this point, but it's getting there: Ubisoft announced earlier this week that a large technical test will be held before the end of this month.
The test won't include the entire game—players will be limited to Citizen Tiers 1-3 and the campaign will not be playable—and Ubisoft warned that some elements will likely be broken. "This test is intended to give us valuable insights into topics like balance and game performance," it wrote. "It won’t be representative of the final polished game you will be able to enjoy next year."
Participants will also have to agree to an NDA forbidding any content sharing, like screens or videos, or even discussion of the game outside of approved forums.
If all of that hasn't put you off, you can sign up for a shot at admission to the test at anno-union.com. You'll need a Uplay account, and also a PC that meets or exceeds these specs:
Minimum:
- CPU: Intel i5 3470 or AMD FX 6350
- RAM: 8 GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce 670 GTX or AMD Radeon R9 285
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (all 64-bit)
- Hard Drive: 26 GB
Recommended:
- CPU: Intel i5 4690k or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
- RAM: 8 GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce 970 GTX or AMD Radeon RX 480
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (all 64-bit)
- Hard Drive: ca. 50 GB
Ubisoft emphasized that these are not the finalized requirements, and that the performance seen in the test—like everything else about it—will not be representative of the final game.
A start date for the technical test hasn't been publicly announced but Ubisoft said on Twitter that it's probably going to start very soon. Anno 1800 is set to come out on February 26, 2019.
