City-building RTS The Settlers launches in March, closed beta next week

After multiple delays, Ubisoft’s reboot of city-building RTS The Settlers finally has a launch date. The Settlers will release on March 17, and if you can’t wait that long there’s a chance you can participate in a closed beta for a few days next week.

After seven Settlers games (and several spinoffs) between 1994 and 2010, the RTS series had a pretty rough decade. The eighth game in the series was cancelled back in 2014 after a closed beta proved to be a disappointment, and Ubisoft eventually announced a reboot with a planned launch date for 2019. That was then delayed until 2020 before being postponed once again. At long last, it looks like The Settlers will once again see the light of day.

When The Settlers arrives in March (hopefully for sure this time) it’ll include skirmish and onslaught modes, as well as a campaign mode with a storyline, characters and allies to meet, and several different biomes to explore and build upon.

This month’s closed beta, however, will only cover skirmish mode for 1v1 or 2v2 matches against other players or AI-controlled factions, with two maps to conquer. You can register here for a chance to get into the closed beta, which runs from January 20-24. If you get into the closed beta, it’ll be available on both Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store.

I got an early look at The Settlers beta build last week, and while it’s a reboot it doesn’t feel like a reinvention of the series. You can read my impressions here.