Anno 117: Pax Romana, a new city-building game set in the Ancient Roman era and intended for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon's Luna service, has been officially announced by publisher Ubisoft. The next title in the venerable Anno series, Anno 117, which blends historical simulation and city-building gameplay, is scheduled for release in 2025.

Since Anno 1602 in 1998, the Anno series has been a mainstay of the Ubisoft lineup. The Anno series has always centered on facilitating discovery through the development of colonies across a sizable globe, much as the first game inspired the era of exploration and colonization. The games' themes and graphics also drew inspiration from history. Just two of the seven games that have been released thus far, Anno 2070 and Anno 2205, have ventured into the realm of speculative history by being set in the future and including ideas like as space colonization and climate change. The Industrial Revolution served as the inspiration for 2019's Anno 1800, which brought a modern touch while staying true to the series' historical inspiration. The series was also originally available on consoles with Anno 1800.

Anno 117: Pax Romana claims to go further into the past than any previous Anno release. Anno 117 follows on the long-standing tradition of strategy games set in Ancient Rome, with a Roman Empire theme that puts players in charge of one of the most influential empires in history. Using a live-action teaser trailer, the studio revealed the tone of the game to gamers at Ubisoft Forward 2024.

Pax Romana Reveal Anno 117: Players Are Challenged To Construct Rome Out Of Nothing

The "Governors Wanted" live-action trailer doesn't feature any gameplay or graphics from the game itself; instead, it uses an actor costumed as a Roman to explain the game's basic plot. In one of two settings, the player takes on the position of a new Roman governor: either the far-off province of Latium, the area of Italy that gave origin to Rome, or the faraway land of Albion, a Celtic-inspired land centered on the northern limits of the Roman Empire in the first century A.D. 

Similar to the opening scenes of Anno 1800, however, it appears that players will also establish their fledgling colonies from wild wilderness, as evidenced by the Roman character speaking to a mostly empty wildland during the trailer.

When Anno 117: Pax Romana launches in 2025, according to Ubisoft, it will be the biggest and "most detailed" simulation of Rome ever created. Like the majority of past Roman grand strategy games, Anno 117 will be centered around construction as opposed to combat and conquest. In order to further mold their nascent empire, players will also be able to select between two play styles: importing Celtic customs or promoting Rome culture.