With the Anno 117: Pax Romana, Ubisoft is getting a helping hand from the German government.
Ubisoft has been given about €5.7 million towards the development of Anno 117: Pax Romana by the German government, in an effort to promote the domestic video game industry.
Finance Minister Robert Habeck announced that Ubisoft would be getting the funding at Gamescom last year, but at the time, we didn't exactly what game the money would be put towards.
This decision is just one part of a wider initiative. Since 2019, a total of over 550 projects have received funding, and over 200 million euros has been spent as part of this federal scheme.
Why Ubisoft?
The German government are effectively funding Ubisoft's daughter companies, which are based in German. In this case it is Blue Byte, known for The Settler and Battle Isle, which was bought out by Ubisoft in 2001.
In fact, the last Anno, 1800, also got a funding, around €1.5 million. The money went not only to the base game, but also to the development of the game's DLCs.
Critics of this decision say that Ubisoft should not receive such a large amount of funding and that the funding should be reserved for smaller studios and projects that have genuine financial difficulties.
What do you think? Are you happy to see bigger publishers given funding, or do you think the money would be better spent if it was reserved for smaller studios?