until 2016, when Blue Byte announced they had redesigned it as an action role-playing game and it was no longer part of The Settlers series. The renamed Champions of Anteria was released for Microsoft Windows later that year. The Settlers: New Allies (), initially called simply The Settlers, was originally slated for release in 2019. It was then rescheduled for the third quarter of 2020, but in July, it was postponed indefinitely and preorders were refunded. In January 2022, Ubisoft announced that the game was nearing completion and was scheduled for release in March. However, the game's closed beta received highly negative feedback. Acting on this feedback, Ubisoft announced in early March that the game was postponed until "a later date." In November 2022, they revealed the game had a new title (The Settlers: New Allies) and was slated for release in February 2023. They also revealed that for the first time in the series' history, a Settlers game would be a multi-platform title, with plans to release the game on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, GeForce Now, and Amazon Luna. Spin-offs The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) () is a remake of The Settlers II, released for Microsoft Windows in 2006. In 2007, Blue Byte released an expansion to the German-only market, Die Siedler II: Die nächste Generation - Wikinger (). In 2013, the original game was released on GOG.com. The Settlers DS is a port of The Settlers II: Gold Edition for Nintendo DS, released in 2007. Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen (), is a spiritual successor to Die nächste Generation, released in Germany in 2008. The Settlers HD was developed and published by Gameloft, working in conjunction with Blue Byte, under license by Ubisoft. It is a remake of The Settlers IV, and was released for iOS in 2009, for webOS and bada in 2010, and for Symbian and Android in 2011. The Settlers Online, named The Settlers Online: Castle Empire in North America, is a free-to-play online browser game for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. It was released in 2010. Gameplay overview The core elements of The Settlers gameplay are city-building and real-time strategy. Both the original Settlers and The Settlers II are city-building games with real-time strategy elements, and have similar gameplay and game mechanics. Unlike the first two games, The Settlers III and The Settlers IV foreground real-time