Ubisoft’s real-time strategy game Anno 1800 is the latest title to turn its back on Steam in favor of the Epic Games Store. Unlike the numerous Epic exclusives announced at GDC 2019, Anno 1800 has already been available for pre-order on Steam for some time, but don’t worry – if you’ve reserved your copy through Steam, you’ll still get to play it there. In fact, you can still pre-order Anno 1800 on Steam up until it’s launch in mid-April, so if you want to play on Valve’s platform, you’d better put your money down.
Here’s what Ubisoft had to say about Anno 1800 moving to the Epic Games Store:
Following the successful launch of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 on PC on the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games store, we are announcing today that we are partnering with Epic Games on Anno 1800 as well. Players can now pre-order the Deluxe and Standard editions of Anno 1800 on PC on the Epic Games store. Once the game has been released on April 16, Anno 1800 will only be available digitally on the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games store. Pre-orders on Steam can be made until the release of the game. Everyone who pre-ordered Anno 1800 on Steam will be able to play the game upon release and will automatically get all future updates and content.
While another game defecting to the Epic Games Store is hardly a shock, it is somewhat surprising to see a game make the jump so close to launch. Epic Games Store boss Steve Allison has said, as recently as last week, that he didn’t want a repeat of the Metro Exodus incident, in which the game made the jump after pre-orders had already been made available through Steam. Guess he’s already gone and broken his word.
Anno 1800 will be available on PC on April 16. An open beta will be available exclusively through the Epic Games Store from April 12 to April 14.
