Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is the next entry in the legendary turn-based tactics franchise set in a mysterious new continent. Featuring new factions, biomes, and creatures, the lands of Jadame have been referenced but never explored in the main Heroes of Might and Magic series. 

Returning to the world of Enroth, Olden Era not only brings back the beloved elements of the classic Heroes series but also reimagines them for a new generation, offering fresh adventures in a land that fans have long cherished. Heroes Of Might And Magic: Olden Era returns to the origins of the legendary saga, inviting both veterans and new players to go on a new strategic quest on Jadame, a mysterious continent in turmoil, never before explored in the main Heroes of Might & Magic series, with its unique factions, biomes and creatures. 

Olden Era's turn-based gameplay is split between exploration, with players taking control of a hero to find resources, build towns and castles, and gather armies of mythic creatures; and tactical battles, in which players pit those armies against opposing forces. Expanding on the classic fundamentals of the series, Olden Era will introduce a number of new features: Players will have more control over how they level up heroes and their factions, for example, with faction-specific abilities, new systems for learning skills and magic spells, and artifacts that now impart bonuses if players equip more than one piece from a set. Additionally, the units players command during battles now have secondary abilities that can be activated when a new energy meter fills.

Olden Era ushers in a new era for the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise, bringing players to explore a vibrant and living fantasy world full of wonders and dangers, build magnificent castles, raise massive armies and clash in epic and highly tactical battles of heroes and mythical creatures. Play solo with a new campaign, single maps and limitless randomly generated scenarios, or engage in battle of wits and magic with other players in various multiplayer modes offering a variety of gameplay, from quick Arena matches to the strategic depth of a single-hero mode or classic Skirmish. One of the main features coming during early access includes creative tools that will allow players to create their own Heroes of Might & Magic single maps and multiplayer templates.

After smashing past 250,000 sales in less than 24 hours, breezing past 500,000, followed by 650k copies sold, Hooded Horse, Unfrozen Studio, and Ubisoft announced that Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has now exceeded 1 million early access (Steam and the Microsoft Store via Game Preview) copies sold in under a month.

Covering immediate plans for the next few months, as well future goals for early access, there’s plenty for current and future players to get excited about.

Greetings, Heroes!

What a lovely start to an Early Access these past four weeks have been! So, so many of you have decided to join an expedition or catch a portal to Jadame, explore it and share feedback with us — we’ve been extremely happy to work with it these past few weeks! As always, we continue to monitor your feedback and weave it into the upcoming updates and changes.

While our main priority remains to ensure a smooth experience in Olden Era and to address any urgent issues that may arise — which will lead to many regular patches throughout Early Access — we would also like to share what our long-term plans are!

Now that we’ve heard loud and clear what you think are the most important features that we should implement, we’re ready to unveil what you’ve all been waiting for: the Roadmap for Olden Era’s Early Access!

Regular updates:

Throughout the Early Access stage, we plan to — besides fixing bugs, balancing and improving UI and Quality of Life — regularly add fresh content. New neutral creatures, heroes, artifacts, spells, map objects, scenarios and so on — everything is on its way.

Stage 1 (Q3 2026):

• Teamplay Mode: a highly requested co-op play feature. You will be able to play together as a team versus AI-opponents or another team of players.
• Advanced features for the Random Map Generator : Changing the map size, setting the amount of players and adjusting other significant options directly in the game.
• Hero skills rebalance: Hero skills’ will be changed according to your feedback.
• Emote wheel update: the emoji wheel will become more comfortable to use and feature more responses.

Stage 2 (Q4 2026):

• Matchmaking system rework: Advanced options and features for matchmaking system.
• Epic classes (also known as Subclass system) rework.
• Observer Mode & Replays: Highly anticipated — already announced previously — features that allow you to watch other players’ matches or recap the most exciting moments of your own match!
• Alternative Creature Upgrades rebalance.

Stage 3 (the road to patch 1.0, before the full release):

This stage includes all the time left in Early Access — we will share more details on this content as we get closer to the end of Stage 2.

Throughout this lengthy Stage we plan to add or change the following things:

• Underground Layer: The classic HOMM-series feature, it will allow you to venture into another map level, which exists simultaneously with the main map. It will include special terrain, its own set of objects, brand new music theme and much more.
• Thieves' Guild: Yet another highly anticipated classic feature, which allows players to get more info on their enemies and the overall game situation.
• New neutral Tier 8 Creatures: Lich Dragons will get some company!
• Map Editor improvements: Map editor will become much more user-friendly, stable and clear.
• Ironman mode for the Campaign: Those who crave a challenge will get a chance to try their best in order to beat the story without an opportunity to save the game regularly. One save to rule them all!
• Match statistics: Behold the post-match charts and numbers in their full glory.
• The max level for spells will be increased from 4 to 5, with some additional improvements that will be revealed in the future.
• Major hero specialization rework.
• Cities’ models changing on a global map with upgrades.
• New win conditions in PVP.

Stage 4 (1.0, full release):

During this Stage we aim to exit the Early Access and fully release Olden Era (more details about that in the future). What does it mean exactly? It means:

• Campaign acts 2 & 3: Fully fleshed out campaign with a completed story.
• PVE Roguelike Mode: We know it’s intriguing and we cannot wait to share more with you!.. Yet a bit later.
• Map Sharing support.
• Alternatives to Pick & Ban for PVP.
• More achievements.
• More Steam perks (Steam only: sorry, we cannot add Steam perks outside the Steam…)!

One more notice: last week we mentioned there would be a balance patch coming. However, it needs just a tiny bit more time and will arrive early next week.

In a nod to the series' history, these skirmishes trade the rectangular grids of more recent Heroes of Might and Magic games for a battlefield of hexagonal spaces. This - like much of Olden Era - is inspired by fan-favorite Heroes of Might and Magic III (which still retains an active player base and community after 25 years).

Heroes Of Might And Magic: Olden Era will feature multiple ways to play, including a story-driven campaign as well as single maps for solo players, and classic multiplayer matches (which support one-on-one duels, but will allow up to eight players in the lobby and enable players to set custom rules). In addition to pre-made maps , Olden Era will also be able to randomly generate new ones, ensuring players can always have something new to discover. Players can also create their own maps and campaigns with an in-game editor.

Players looking for a more streamlined combat fix can also tackle Arena, a new multiplayer mode in which two players draft heroes, artifacts, skills, and creatures before jumping straight into a tactical battle.

Olden Era's nonlinear story campaign will let players choose from six new and returning factions, each with their own heroes, creatures, aesthetics, and playstyles: the knightly Temple; the Sylvan fey folk and forces of nature; the dark elves and subterranean dwellers of Dungeon; the vampires and undead of Necropolis; the demon-corrupted insectoids of Hive; and another faction that will be unveiled later.

Additionally, Olden Era introduces a system of Faction Laws, which let you level up your kingdom as well as your heroes by choosing perks. Each faction has a specific set of Faction Laws to choose from, however, and these won't change even if you conquer castles or recruit creatures from other factions during a match.

Heroes are central to every Heroes of Might and Magic game: they're the protagonists you control while exploring the world, and each faction has several. While they don't necessarily take an active role on the battlefield, they can intervene with spells and special attacks, and impart passive buffs to certain kinds of troops.

Heroes will level up as maps unfold, battles are won, and bonuses are discovered, and Olden Era gives players new ways to fine-tune their hero's build. Artifacts - weapons, pieces of armor, and other items that can be found throughout the world and equipped on your hero - return in Olden Era, and now impart extra bonuses if you equip more than one item from a set; the more pieces from that set you equip, the more bonuses you unlock. You can also adjust your build with subskills, a new addition that can augment a hero's "main" skills (once those are unlocked) with passive buffs and perks. 

Mage Guilds return in Olden Era, she says, but their randomness will be smoothed out a bit, ensuring players have better opportunities to grab the spells they need to complete a build, while still not being able to learn everything. More about magic and Olden Era's other new features will be revealed in the near future, so stay tuned.

Heroes Of Might And Magic: Olden Era is coming to PC (Steam) in 2027.