Following a recent round of layoffs at Ubisoft that saw hundreds of workers lose their jobs at multiple of the company's game studios across America and Europe, it has been revealed in a recent report by The Game File that Ubisoft is planning further reductions, this time at its German studios. According to the report, which cites a representative at Ubisoft Germany. The gaming giant previously discussed the prospect with the Works Council—a labor group representing employees—where it proposed a voluntary departure plan.

It seems as though the highest-profile studio to be affected by the upcoming round of layoffs is Mainz, which previously worked on Anno 1800, Anno 117: Pax Romana, Rainbow Six Seige, and Beyond Good and Evil 2. The Ubisoft studios in Berlin and Dusseldorf will also be affected, with Dusseldorf reportedly taking the brunt of the job cuts. The job cuts are motivated by sustainability, with Ubisoft's Benedikt Grindel stating in an internal email that the cuts would "best position our German studios for the future...with a clearer focus on their role, capabilities, and organizational setup needed for the work ahead."

Ubisoft posted its FY2019-20 financial report recently, and made a very interesting disclosure: PC has surpassed PlayStation 4 to become Ubisoft's most revenue-generating platform. For the quarter ending June 2019, PC accounted for 34 percent of Ubisoft's "net bookings" (a unit of sale of a product or service). This figure stood at 24 percent last year. With PC at 34 percent, PlayStation 4 takes the second spot at 31 percent, Xbox One at 18 percent, and Switch at 5 percent.

The surge in revenues from PC are attributed to "Anno 1800" and the UPlay application that rivals Steam in providing direct sales, DRM, updates, and social networking for gamers. "The 34 percent was pushed by Anno, which is a PC-specific game, but even with that launch, we had a very good performance on PC overall," said CEO Yves Guillemot, in the post-results investors call. "Anno 1800" is distributed both on UPlay and Epic Games Store. Ubisoft will be pushing out two expansion packs for "Anno 1800" this year.

Ubisoft has pulled the upcoming entry to its smash-hit RTS franchise, "Anno 1800" from Steam. For the PC platform, the game will be available only through Ubisoft's own UPlay, and the Epic Games Store, which continues to vacuum AAA titles from Steam on the promise of higher revenue share for the game developers. Ubisoft is giving Steam fans a chance to put their money where their mouths are, though.

You will be able to pre-order "Anno 1800" on Steam until April 16. The pre-ordered game will remain in your Steam library, and you will receive updates for the game through Steam. Also, people who purchased the game on Steam will be able to play multiplayer with those who bought their copies through UPlay or Epic Games Store. This presents Steam fans with a unique opportunity to tell a big studio like Ubisoft what they want.

Anno 1602 will likely be a blast from the past for some of us, with the game initially launching all the way back in 1998. Now 20 years later, Ubisoft has decided to give the first game in this illustrious franchise away for free on Uplay until December 23rd. This cult classic brings a mix of city building and economy management with a liberal sprinkle of real-time strategy creating a unique title that defined a genre and still scratches that odd nostalgic itch today.

Of course, since the game is being made available on a digital platform, means improved support for modern operating systems including Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10. That said, you will need a Uplay account if you don't have one already and will need to redeem the game on Ubisoft's site. Considering the February release of Anno 1800 is fast approaching, now might be a good time to enjoy a classic while you wait. After all what do you have to lose? It is free.

We went to Ubisoft's floor space at Gamescom 2018, and it was easily one of the biggest ones (only really comparable to Blizzard's, in both size and apparatus). Naturally, the focus was on the heavy hitting franchises, like Assassin's Creed, where Ubisoft had at least three people dressed up in a thematically resonant way with the title's Greek setting, alongside a Spartan statue. Everywhere you looked there were people holding paper Spartan shields or pretending to be fighting with the Ubisoft employees; it was like a budget version of 300 was assaulting you from all sides. Like with almost all games, there was hands-on time for those willing to wait in-line.