The Settlers is a strategy game with city-building aspects that was first released back in 1993. Fans have been waiting patiently for the proposed reboot for some time now, but it looks like the wait isn’t going to end any time soon. What do we know so far about this reboot and when it might finally appear?
The Story So Far
The Settlers has a long list of main games and spin-offs, most of which were developed by Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft. However, things started to go wrong in 2014, when the eighth main game, subtitled Kingdoms of Anteria, was pulled from beta by Ubisoft following negative feedback. This game was finally released a couple of years later as Champions of Anteria rather than as a part of The Settlers.
In 2018 we then heard that a reboot was due, with 2019 mentioned as a possible release date for this game, which was going to be called simply The Settlers. Then it was postponed and people who had pre-ordered it got their money back. At the start of this year, Ubisoft said that the reboot was finally close to completion and should be released in March but followed that up by saying that they had again postponed it.
Negative feedback was once again given as the reason for this decision, with players commenting negatively on the closed beta version of the game. According to Ubisoft, the reboot has been postponed until a later date, but no more details have been given at this stage.
The Ongoing Popularity of the Genre
One of the keys to the popularity of The Settlers over the years is the fact that it covers a couple of popular genres. The city-building and strategy element has been seen in other popular video games such as Tropico 6, SimCity 4, and Surviving Mars. The challenge of building up a civilization while fighting enemies is a popular combination, although it was the incorrect mixing of these two elements that was cited as one of the reasons for the Kingdoms of Anteria game failing.
Among the latest games in this genre, Farthest Frontier, Prehistoric Kingdom, and IXION have all been released in recent months and it seems certain that we see more games like this come out in the near future. The fact that The Settlers series has often had a medieval theme means that it also this time period in common with popular games such as Crusader Kings 3, Medieval II: Total War, and Age of Empires 2.
While this period is typically seen in strategy games, we can also see it in online slots like King of Crystals, which can be played after the online casino welcome bonus at the Hippodrome online casino has been collected. New players get a 100% bonus on their first deposit, while existing members currently receive 20 free spins on this medieval-themed slot for depositing £20 or more.
We’ll need to wait a bit longer to find out if The Settler reboot ever sees the light of day, but the genres it represents should continue to be popular in other games in the meantime.
