Can Anno 117 Pax Romana Win Players Back After Its DLC Apology

Ubisoft and the developers of Anno 117: Pax Romana have publicly apologized for the issues surrounding the new DLC Prophecy of Ashes, according to an official statement. The same update also confirms that patch 1.5.1.1 is expected during the week of May 11, with fixes aimed at multiple bugs as well as crashes tied to older saves.

Taken piece by piece, the backlash comes from several failures stacking on top of each other. Some Gold Edition players, despite owning the Season Pass, were unable to access the DLC when it launched. Those who did get in then ran into a theater event that would not start, broken filters in the trade menu, abnormal ship names, and even lost trade routes after enabling the DLC. In an Anno game built around planning and long-form management, these are not minor rough edges; they interrupt the core loop players are trying to build.

The bigger issue, though, is the gap between the marketing and the final result. Ubisoft had previously described the new island, Cinis, as the largest island in the series. The team later admitted that claim was wrong, saying Cinis was not 13% larger at all and was instead around 7% smaller than Crown Falls in Anno 1800. The community did not keep circling this point just because of a bad number. For Anno players, map scale, buildable space, and late-game layout matter a great deal, so island size directly shapes expectations for an entire save.

The developers explained that the mistake came from comparing “total area” with “buildable area.” That does clarify how the error happened, but it does not fully defuse player frustration. In a city-builder and management game, what matters is not the paper size of a map, but how much room there actually is to spread out production chains, housing districts, and transport networks. Players are judging usable space, not brochure language.

Ubisoft, at minimum, has not tried to ignore the situation. Patch 1.5.1.1 is expected to address the theater event bug, trade menu filter failures, abnormal ship names, lost trade routes after enabling the DLC, and crashes caused by older saves. The company also says it will improve its process and strengthen quality control for future updates and DLC. Whether that will be enough depends on how stable the patch is once it goes live, and whether future promotion is handled with more care.

If you have not bought Prophecy of Ashes yet and are still undecided, the safer move right now is to wait for player feedback after patch 1.5.1.1 arrives during the week of May 11 before starting a new save or making a purchase. If you already own the Gold Edition or the Season Pass, the priority is to watch whether the fixes for access rights, older saves, and lost trade routes are truly complete. Compared with Crown Falls in Anno 1800, this situation is another reminder that long-time Anno players are highly sensitive to a core selling point like map size. Once early marketing and the actual experience diverge too sharply, patching the game is only part of the problem; rebuilding trust is never instant.