| The Settlers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) | City-building, real-time strategy |
| Developer(s) | Ubisoft Blue Byte |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Creator(s) | Volker Wertich |
| Platform(s) | |
| First release | The Settlers June 30, 1993 |
| Latest release | The Settlers: New Allies February 17, 2023 |
The Settlers (German: Die Siedler) is a city-building and real-time strategy video game series created by Volker Wertich in 1993. The original game was released on the Amiga, with subsequent games released primarily on MS-DOS and Windows: The Settlers II (1996), The Settlers III (1998), The Settlers IV (2001), The Settlers: Heritage of Kings (2004), The Settlers: Rise of an Empire (2007), and The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom (2010). There are also several spin-offs; The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) (2006) is a remake of The Settlers II, The Settlers DS (2007) is a port of The Settlers II for Nintendo DS, Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen (2008) is a German-only spiritual successor to 10th Anniversary, The Settlers HD (2009) is a handheld remake of The Settlers IV, and The Settlers Online (2010) is a free-to-play online browser game. With the exception of The Settlers HD, Ubisoft Blue Byte has developed every game in the series and published the first three titles. From The Settlers IV onwards, Ubisoft has published all titles.
An eighth game in the main series, The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria, was scheduled for release in 2014, but after the game's closed beta was abruptly shut down by Ubisoft in light of negative feedback, the game was removed from the release schedule. It was ultimately repackaged and released in 2016 as Champions of Anteria, an action role-playing game unrelated to The Settlers series. A franchise reboot, initially named simply The Settlers, was scheduled for release in 2019, but was postponed and all preorders were refunded. In January 2022, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released in March of that year. In March, however, it was again postponed. In November, Ubisoft revealed the game was now called The Settlers: New Allies. It was ultimately released in February 2023.
Narratively, each game is a stand-alone story with no connection to the other titles in the series (although Rise of an Empire is an indirect sequel to Heritage of Kings). From a gameplay perspective, although each game tends to feature its own set of innovations and nuances, broadly speaking, they are all built on a simulation of a supply and demand economic system in which the player must maintain the various chains of production, building up their military strength and the robustness of their economy so as to defeat their opponents and achieve certain predetermined objectives. Some games foreground city-building and complex daisy-chain economic processes whereas others focus on real-time strategy and building a diverse military force. Common game mechanics include resource acquisition, economic micromanagement, managing taxation, maintaining a high standard of living, trade, and technology trees.
Critically, reactions to the games have been mixed, ranging from universal praise for The Settlers II to universal condemnation for The Settlers DS. The series has sold very well, with global sales of over 10 million units as of September 2014. It has sold especially well in Europe. The games have also done well at various game award shows, and the series features two recipients of the "Best Game" award at the annual Deutscher Entwicklerpreis.