Ubisoft Is Giving A Game Away For Free
Ubisoft is offering a game free of charge!
This article is more than 2 years old
Gaming companies have been making free games giveaways for quite some time now. This trend appeared approximately a decade ago as means for gaming companies to gain more exposure and attract more customers. Apparently, undying love for gaming isn’t an adequate reason for said companies to give away free games. However, with the rise of subscription services, companies such as Epic Games and Amazon make bi-weekly or monthly giveaways, which help the companies increase the number of subscribers, and gamers get their hands on cool gaming titles. In addition, Ubisoft, a French video gaming giant responsible for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, has now joined the giveaway club with their 2009 game Anno 1404.
According to Comic Book, Ubisoft has surprised everybody by giving away their classic game for free and rebranding it Anno 1404: History Edition. The giveaway concludes on December 14, so anyone interested in this fantastic title should download it before the game returns to its usual price. And while the game is currently free, there are certain drawbacks; playing Anno 1404 requires a user’s account and Ubisoft PC client installed. Luckily, those interested in the title can register at Ubisoft for free without incurring monthly subscription fees. So, it’s truly a free gaming title, no strings attached — we’re looking at you, Amazon.
For those that aren’t familiar with Ubisoft’s Anno gaming series, it dates over two decades now, with the first game, Anno 1602, released in 1998 — also Germany’s best-selling video game title of all time. Conceived as a city-building and economic simulation game with real-time strategy elements, all the major releases in the series were, and still are, PC exclusives, with certain spin-offs being released for smartphones and Nintendo DS consoles. So, the free giveaway only affects PC gamers and not console owners.
The 2010’s Anno 1404: History Edition is a re-release of 2009’s Anno 1404 that includes several technical upgrades and the game’s Venice expansion. The game was developed by Related Designs, produced by Germany-based Blue Byte, and published by Ubisoft. It was a follow-up to previously released Anno 1701, which was a massive hit, followed by a futuristic Anno 2070 — which, admittedly, was a big step forward for the Anno series, plagued by Ubisoft’s experiments regarding online play modes. With that said, Anno 1404: History Edition received generally favorable reviews upon its release, with IGN giving the game 8.2/10, calling it “a worthy successor to the Anno franchise,” while 82% of more than a thousand Steam users reviewed the game positively, giving a “Very Positive” rating on the platform.
Compared to Epic Games and Amazon, which give away games on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, Ubisoft does this only a couple of times a year. The company’s first giveaway was in 2016, on Ubisoft’s 30th birthday, during which the company gave away several gaming titles, including the legendary Beyond Good & Evil, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and the cult-classic Prince of Persia: Sand of Time video game, released in 2003. Ubisoft is offering Anno 1404: History Edition in a free giveaway event, part of Ubisoft’s 35th-anniversary celebrations. Whether or not the company plans to give away more of its titles for free remains to be seen.
