Anno 2070 is lucky it wasn’t announced last Friday

A new Anno game has been announced and in a surprise twist, it’s Anno 2070. What? Yep, 2070. Not 1305.

It’s made by Blue Byte and Related Designs who made Anno 1404 together, while Related Designs has been making the Anno series from Anno 1701 onwards. The game is set in a “near-future environment” (you could’ve fooled me) where “climate change has forced humanity to adapt to rising sea levels that have left stretches of once-fertile land completely inhospitable.”

You’ll be able to choose between two factions: the ‘Tycoons’ who are industrial and efficient, and the ‘Ecos’ who are environmentally friendly and rely on sustainability. Your faction choice and playstyle will affect the environment, the look your buildings, and your population’s needs

The futuristic setting is a nice surprise, and while the game will still have the same core gameplay at heart, the new environmental impact mechanics might give the series that needed injection of freshness. Also, you will be able to finally build your own little metropolis in typical Anno fashion, but at a much larger scale. The new engine doesn’t look half bad either, so let’s see what they come up with.

Anno 2070 is set for a Winter 2011 release on PC, possibly followed by Anno 2180 a few years from now.