After the excellent "Anno 1800," Ubisoft is polishing up its history-focused past "Anno" series and digging into the city builder's back catalog: "Anno 1602," "Anno 1503," "Anno 1701," and "Anno 1404. History Editions have been re-released, each with updates optimized for the latest systems. These new editions will also include DLC for each game and will be released as the Anno History Collection.

There is a trailer, but it is almost comically dry and uninformative.

These are by no means complete remasters, rather each game has been enhanced with modest tweaks and improvements. These include 4K graphics options, multiplayer matchmaking, borderless window mode, and multi-screen support. More generally, each game will be updated to 64-bit for improved performance and stability. This news alone may not ring a bell, but "Anno 1404" in particular had a memory bug that was quite frustrating. And 1503 did not officially support multiplayer.

As if to reaffirm that each game will remain largely unchanged going forward, saves from the original version have been confirmed to still work.

However! for new fans who enjoyed 1800, it remains a good way to check out the series' past. In particular, "Anno 1404" is considered a masterpiece and is absolutely worth playing even today.

Because of the complexity of commerce, not all games are available on all stores; Uplay, of course, has everything available, including the complete Anno History Collection. However, only Anno 1404's History Edition is available on Steam, and both Anno 1404 and Anno 1701 are available on the Epic Game Store. Presumably, the original, non-History Edition versions would still be available through GOG.