Ubisoft Blue Byte

Ubisoft Blue Byte is a developer and publisher.

Ubisoft Blue Byte Webpage, Facebook

A German development studio once known as Blue Byte Entertainment, it has been owned by the French company Ubisoft Entertainment since February 2001 and now operates under the name Ubisoft Blue Byte. The company is headquartered in Dusseldorf, with additional studios in Mainz and Berlin. Since August 2019, the company has dropped the name it had used for eighteen years, with its individual studios now operating as Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Mainz, and Ubisoft Berlin.

The studio’s portfolio now consists of more than 30 titles. Among them are the economic strategy series The Settlers (with roughly 3 million copies sold), Battle Isle (about 650,000 copies sold), and Anno. The studio is considered a pioneer of the German gaming industry, creating titles for the SNES, Amiga, and PC. Many well-known developers took their first steps at the company before moving on to other teams or founding their own studios. Blue Byte has collaborated with figures such as Thomas Friedmann, Thomas Häuser, and Thorsten Knop (Funatics), Armin Gessert (Spellbound), and Volker Wertich (Phenomic), among others.

• Blue Byte as a game developer
• Blue Byte as a game publisher
• History

Blue Byte as a game developer

Blue Byte specializes in strategy games, with a particular focus on economic gameplay. The studio’s first major success was the turn-based strategy series Battle Isle, set in a futuristic world, which helped establish the team on the international stage. The company’s crowning achievement, which has firmly secured its place in gaming history, is the economic series The Settlers, set in a pseudo-medieval world. One of the series’ most distinctive features is its flag- and path-based management system, along with the slightly humorous portrayal of the kingdom’s inhabitants and their daily activities. Since 2006, Blue Byte has also been developing the Anno series, a real-time strategy franchise with each installment set in different historical or fictional settings.

Blue Byte as a game publisher

Blue Byte began self-publishing after negotiations with the French company Ubi Soft, which had distributed the studio’s early titles, fell through. Throughout its publishing history, the company has focused on its own series, with The Settlers and Battle Isle standing out as its most prominent titles. In 2001, Blue Byte was acquired by Ubisoft and ended its publishing activities.

History

Prehistory

Blue Byte was founded in 1988 in Mülheim by Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt. Both had previously worked at Rainbow Arts, a studio known, among other things, for porting the Earthworm Jim series to MS-DOS. However, the company faced significant staffing challenges, leading to the mass departure of many key employees in the early 1990s.

Blue Byte’s first releases were the platformer Twinworld and the tennis simulation Great Courts. Both games were released in 1989 by Ubisoft (then still known as Ubi Soft), with the latter achieving notable success. Encouraged by this success, the developers turned their attention to creating a turn-based strategy game. Ubi Soft was once again slated to publish the game, but the French company rejected its design, and negotiations ultimately fell through. Blue Byte chose to self-publish, releasing Battle Isle in 1991. The game was a resounding success and marked the beginning of one of the most significant series in gaming history. The studio gained momentum and, over the following years, released a mix of hits and lesser-known titles, including Atomino and Apidya, as well as History Line: 1914-1918, expansions for Battle Isle, and Yo! Joe!) A major milestone for the German studio came in 1993 with the release of the second installment of the Battle Isle series. The studio then teamed up with the American company Accolade, which handled the game’s release in North America.

The great success of The Settlers

The studio’s real breakthrough came in 1993 with the economic strategy game The Settlers (Die Siedler in Germany, Serf City: Life is Feudal in the United States). The game proved unexpectedly successful, even for the developers themselves. It was hailed as groundbreaking - despite some similarities to the Populous series—and earned top marks from numerous industry magazines. By May 1998, sales had surpassed 400,000 copies. The game was originally released on the Amiga, with an MS-DOS version following at the end of 1994. Strategic Simulations handled the game’s release in the North American market. The game’s success fueled significant growth for Blue Byte and prompted a wave of new investments. In 1994, Blue Byte opened a branch in Northampton to focus on the European English-language market, followed a year later by another branch in Schaumburg, United States. At the same time, the studio was working on new installments in The Settlers and Battle Isle series, as well as new IPs, including Albion, Archimedean Dynasty, and Chewy: ESC from F5.

The transition to Ubisoft

The studio’s attempt to break into global markets independently fell short of expectations. Despite positive reviews for Incubation: Time Is Running Out, based on the first X-COM installment, and for later Settlers titles, Blue Byte’s games remained niche, attracting limited attention from mainstream audiences. Financial difficulties in 1997 and 1998 prompted the departure of many experienced employees and forced the company to sell its international operations. In 2001, Ubisoft acquired the studio for 26 million marks, bringing an end to Blue Byte’s role as a video game publisher.

The rise of Anno and looking for a new path for The Settlers

In this new period, Blue Byte was to focus solely on development work. Following Ubisoft’s acquisition of Sunflowers Interactive in 2007, Blue Byte continued developing new installments of The Settlers series and also took on the Anno franchise. As part of a 2004 restructuring, the company moved its headquarters to Düsseldorf, and in 2014, it opened an auxiliary studio, Blue Byte Mainz, dedicated to developing Anno titles.

Under Ubisoft’s ownership, the studio’s first release was the fifth installment of The Settlers series, Heritage of Kings, published in 2005. The game introduced several major changes that were not well received by longtime fans of the franchise. These changes included realistic 3D graphics and a significantly altered gameplay style, more reminiscent of Age of Empires than the classic entries in the series. Despite a lukewarm reception from the community, the game received two expansions: Additional Missions and Legends. In 2006, a full-fledged remake of the cult classic The Settlers II, The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary, was released. Shortly after, it received an expansion pack titled Vikings. In 2007, the series debuted on the Nintendo DS, alongside the full-fledged sixth installment, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire. The developers aimed to return the game to its roots while also introducing new features. As a result, it was far better received than the controversial fifth installment. In 2008, the game received an expansion pack, Eastern Kingdoms, and in 2010, the series launched its seventh installment, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom. 2010 also saw the launch of the browser-based game The Settlers Online.

In the years that followed, Ubisoft Blue Byte focused primarily on developing the Anno series. In 2012, they released an expansion for Anno 2070 titled The Mysterious Blue Depths, followed in 2013 by the browser-based Anno Online. In 2015, the team developed the even more futuristic Anno 2205, and in 2019, they released the highly acclaimed Anno 1800, which has received extensive post-launch support and numerous expansions.

Meanwhile, the team also worked on other projects, including the browser-based Might & Magic: Heroes Online (2014), the mobile Assassin's Creed: Identity (2016), Champions of Anteria (2016) - originally planned as the eighth installment in The Settlers series under the title The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria - and the PC game For Honor (2017). Additionally, in June 2014, the Related Designs team - acquired by Ubisoft in April 2013 - was merged into Ubisoft Blue Byte, becoming part of its development studio. In April 2017, the company opened a new branch in Berlin.

The developers, however, haven't forgotten their roots. At Gamescom 2018, the team unveiled The Settlers History Collection, compiling the seven previous installments of The Settlers series, along with the eighth installment, which also served as a reboot. The game drew heavily on the legacy of its predecessors while introducing several new features. It was set to run on the Snowdrop Engine, developed for Tom Clancy's The Division, though its visuals retained the brand’s signature warm and colorful style.

A new beginning

At Gamescom 2019, the company announced its rebranding, retiring the Ubisoft Blue Byte name, which would henceforth serve only as a legal umbrella for its individual divisions. Going forward, the company’s studios would be known as Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Mainz, and Ubisoft Berlin.

In August 2019, the previously announced reboot of The Settlers was delayed - the first of many such delays. Although the game was originally slated for a 2020 release, it was announced in July that its launch had been postponed again, this time to an unspecified date. The silence continued until January 2022, when the developers announced a new release date of March 17. Unfortunately, early feedback from those who played a preview version of the game was not encouraging. Reports indicated, among other issues, that the gameplay was overly simplified and became boring quickly. As a result, the release was delayed again in early March. The silence around the project was broken in November 2022, when it was announced that the game - now titled The Settlers: New Allies - would launch on February 17, 2023. Rather than launching a major promotional campaign, Ubisoft chose to keep the release under wraps. As it turned out, for good reason.

The game received an average score of just 59/100 on Metacritic, a disappointing result - particularly for a title in a beloved franchise. Players were even harsher, giving the game an average score of just 2.5/10 on Metacritic. While The Settlers: New Allies was praised for its graphics, it faced criticism for simplified gameplay, low difficulty, weak AI, and, most notably, technical issues. The game struggled to attract a large audience, as evidenced by difficulties in finding players for its multiplayer mode.

Although The Settlers: New Allies was also released on consoles, few expected it to achieve significant success. It wasn’t the studio’s only game to see a console release at the time. In March 2023, the best-selling Anno 1800 was also released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

In June 2024, Ubisoft Blue Byte announced its next project, Anno 117: Pax Romana, being developed by the Ubisoft Mainz studio. As the name suggests, the eighth main installment in this best-selling series would take players to ancient Rome in the 2nd century. This time, players can take on the roles of governors overseeing Latium (central Italy) or Albion (England). Notably, this was the first main installment in the series designed from the outset for both PC and consoles.