It's been a very big year for Albion Online, with everything from the game launching on mobile, to the very major changes brought about by both the Call to Arms and Lands Awakened updates. The team is looking back on 2021 and the impact those changes had on a game marking its fourth anniversary with its biggest year yet.
With the team still mostly working remotely, March brought the Call to Arms update that reworked PVP and added new options. They reworked the faction warfare system with PVP, PVE, and also transport options to support a variety of play styles. Along with those changes, the update introduced a new faction, loadouts, Elite Faction Mounts , new zones, new maps and an event to support it all.
By the time June rolled around, after years of development based on the intention that Albion Onlinee was always intended to be a cross-platform game, it was released to mobile. Launching on mobile started bringing in more players. Just before it launched on mobile, they had about 150,000 active accounts. After the mobile launch it shot up to 271,000 in just a week after mobile release. Since all could play from desktop or mobile it brought in both new and returning players.
Lands Awakened was the most extensive update so far. Not only did it work to transform open world gameplay and encourage exploration, every biome got new visual touches and many some were overhauled extensively. For a challenge, they introduced mobs at level over time and get upgraded. Not only is the world more open, but it feels like it grows with you. Following Lands Awakened, they changed the guild system to reflect the new open-world features, bringing PvP options all over and adding new ways to upgrade and support HQs, guilds, and more.
Albion Online’s big year comes to an end with the news that the team is already working on the next major update, and there will be a new dev talk coming soon.
